The portrait of hereditary breast cancer.
by Marc Lacroix, Guy Leclercq, on behalf of BreastMed Consortium
(European Community, contract INCO MED ICA3-CT-2002-1005)
Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium
in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment (2005) 89, 297-304
http://www.geocities.com/m.lacroix/bcrt5.htm
Five to ten per cent of all breast carcinomas are of hereditary
origin. Many of them have been associated to mutations in the BRCA1
and BRCA2 susceptibility genes. No "BRCA3" gene has been found to
account for the non-BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer (BRCAx) families, and
BRCAx tumors are increasingly believed to originate from multiple
distinct genetic events. Phenotype studies have questioned the
existence of specific "portraits" among hereditary breast carcinomas
(HBC). They have shown that most BRCA1 tumors express a "basal
(epithelial)-like" aspect, while BRCA2 and BRCAx HBC are more
heterogeneous. HBC have also been submitted to genetic analyses,
notably with the objective of resolving the heterogeneity of BRCAx
lesions. The present review aims to summarize recent data on BRCA1,
BRCA2, and BRCAx HBC, including hypotheses on the origin of BRCA1
tumors and their paradoxical relations to estrogen-sensitivity.
BreastMed Consortium: Yves-Jean Bignon, Nancy Uhrhammer, Unité
d'Oncogénétique, Centre Jean Perrin, Clermont-Ferrand, France;
Nathalie Zammatteo, José Remacle, URBC, Fondation Universitaire
Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur, Belgium; André Mégarbané, Unité de
Génétique Médicale, Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut, Lebanon;
Nourredine Ben Jafaar, Abdelaziz Sefiani, Institut National
d'Oncologie, Rabat, Morocco; Lotfi Chouchane, Sami Remadi, Laboratoire
d'Immuno-Oncologie Moléculaire, Monastir, Tunisia; Amel Ben Ammar-El
Gaaied, Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire, d'Immunologie et de
Biotechnologie, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia; Denis
Larsimont, Jean-Marie Nogaret, Institut Jules Bordet, Bruxelles,
Belgium; Catherine Sibille, Christine Galant, Centre de Génétique
Médicale, Université Catholique de Louvain, Bruxelles, Belgium;
Françoise de Longueville, Eppendorf Array Technologies (EAT), Namur,
Belgium; Véronique Vidal, Diagnogène, Aurillac, France.
