The geneticists from Sunnybrook are going to meet Pace as a part of a study on women who've had Breast Cancer and are carrying a variant on the BRCA1 genetic sequence.When individuals carry a mutation in either BRCA1 or BRCA2, they are at an increased risk of being diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer at some point in their lives.
In 1994, two breast cancer susceptibility genes were identified: BRCA1 on chromosome 17 and BRCA2 on chromosome 13. In her breast cancer blog, Libby Znaimer called BRCA 2 "the Jewish gene."
Until recently, it was not clear what the function of these genes was, until studies on a related protein in yeast revealed their normal role: they participate in repairing radiation-induced breaks in double-stranded DNA.
It is thought that mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 might disable this mechanism, leading to more errors in DNA replication and ultimately to cancerous growth.
Which begs the question: just how did Pace get exposed to enough radiation to cause her breast cells DNA to mutate into cancer?
Image Source:http://www.cmu.edu/bio/research/genomics.shtml
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