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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Identifying the Effects of BRCA1 Mutations on Homologous Recombination using Cells that Express Endogenous Wild-type BRCA1
Published on: February 17, 2011
BRCA1/2 mutation carriers vs the general breast cancer population (N = 799,986): 21-gene assay-based molecular
Rinat Yerushalmi1,2, Adi Pomerantz3, Ron Lewin4
1Davidoff Cancer Center, Rabin Medical Center, 39 Jabotinski St, 49414, Petah Tikva, Israel. rinaty@clalit.org.il.
Purpose:
We compared 21-gene recurrence score (RS) distribution and expression of the single-gene/gene groups within this assay between BC patients with pathogenic variants (PV) in BRCA1/2 vs the general 21-gene-tested BC population.
Methods:
This retrospective study included consecutive 21-gene-tested female ER + HER2-negative BC patients with germline PVs in BRCA1/2. RS/gene expression data were compared to a previously described commercial use database (CDB, N = 799,986). Chi-square and 1-sample t test were used to compare RS distribution and single-gene/gene group scores between the study group and the CDB.
Results:
Study group patients (N = 81) were younger and their RS results were higher compared to the CDB (age: median [IQR], 56 [47-61.5] vs 60 [51-67] years; p < 0.001; proportion of patients with RS ≥ 26: 49.4% vs 16.4%, p < 0.001). Expression of 12/16 cancer genes in the assay and the ER, proliferation, and invasion gene group scores differed significantly between the study group and the CDB, all in a direction contributing to higher RS. The differences between the study group and the CDB were mostly retained, upon stratifying the patients by menopausal status.
Conclusion:
BC patients with PVs in BRCA1/2 have higher RS results that stem from distinct gene expression profiles in the majority of genes in the 21-gene assay.
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