Genetic heterogeneity in breast cancer susceptibility

Approximately 20% of breast cancer patients have a family history of the disease, and in one-fourth of these cases breast cancer appears to be inherited as an autosomally dominant trait. Five genes and gene regions involved in breast cancer susceptibility have been uncovered. Germ-line mutations in the recently cloned BRCA1 gene at 17q21 is considered to be responsible for the disease in a majority of the breast-ovarian cancer families and in 40-45% of the site-specific breast cancer families, but appears not to be involved in families with both male and female breast cancer cases. The BRCA2 locus at 13q12-q13 appears to be involved in 40-45% of the site-specific breast cancer families, and in most of the families with affected males. The gene located in this region, however, does not seem to confer susceptibility to ovarian cancer. The TP53 gene is involved in breast cancer development in the Li-Fraumeni syndrome and Li-Fraumeni syndrom-like families, whereas germ-line mutations in the androgen receptor (AR) gene is present in a subset of male breast cancers. Furthermore, females who are obligate carriers of ataxia telangiectasia (AT) have a 4-12 times relative risk of developing breast cancer as compared with the general female population, indicating that germ-line mutations in AT also confer susceptibility to breast cancer.