A recently discovered facet of the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 reveals a mechanism linking mutation of BRCA1 to formation of large blood vessels needed to support cancer progression.
The findings demonstrate that, in addition to an impaired DNA damage response associated with cancer initiation, mutation of BRCA1 is also linked to manipulation of the tumor microenvironment. The research appears in the July issue of Cancer Cell, published by Cell Press.
Mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 account for up to 50% of hereditary breast cancers. BRCA1 is known to serve as a tumor suppressor by regulating DNA damage repair and maintaining genomic stability. Although the mechanism is not fully understood, reduced BRCA1 expression is also often correlated with accelerated growth and progression of breast tumors and with increased tumor blood vessel formation. In order to better understand the link between BRCA1 and tumor progression, Dr. Wen-Hwa Lee and colleagues from the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, designed a series of experiments to search for genes that are regulated by BRCA1.