Four new genes have been added to the growing list of those known to cause increased breast cancer risk when mutated through the efforts of researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah, who lead an international consortium working to find more gene mutations that cause inherited breast cancer susceptibilities.
“BRCA1 and BRCA2 aren’t the whole story when it comes to inherited breast cancer risk. We’ve known for a long time that more genes had to be responsible and several have since been discovered, by us and by others,” according to Sean Tavtigian, Ph.D., an HCI investigator, professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah (U of U), and one of three joint-principal investigators on the study. “Originally, the gene we are currently studying, called RINT1, was not considered a human cancer susceptibility gene. But then we discovered there was a two- to three-fold increase in risk for breast cancer in families that carry a mutation in that gene.” The RINT1 findings were published this month in the journal Cancer Discovery.
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