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Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome
Make it clearer
Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome is a predisposition carried in the genes, and the two genes that define it are BRCA1 and BRCA2. Anyone born with a harmful variant in one of them has a higher risk of breast cancer, in women as well as in men, and of ovarian cancer.
To understand why, it helps to look at what BRCA1 does when it works properly. DNA can suffer double-strand breaks, when both strands snap at the same time and the molecule is left like a rope cut clean through. BRCA1 travels to the site of the damage and assembles there with BRCA2 and another protein called RAD51, and it sets in motion homologous recombination repair, the mechanism that joins those two broken strands back together.
Transmission is autosomal dominant: inheriting the variant from just one of the two parents is enough, and a person who carries it has a fifty percent chance of passing it to each child.
In brief
Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome, linked to BRCA1 and BRCA2, raises the risk of breast cancer in women and in men, and of ovarian cancer.
BRCA1 assembles with BRCA2 and RAD51 at sites of DNA damage and activates homologous recombination repair of double-strand breaks.
It is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, and the children of a carrier have a fifty percent chance of inheriting the variant.
Sources (1)
- GeneReviews, University of Washington, SeattleBRCA1- and BRCA2-Associated Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer, GeneReviewsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated