> Breast Cancer

Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine have isolated how the function in the TGFß-Smad signaling pathway operates to create an epigenetic memory responsible for silenting critical genes involved in the progression of breast cancers. It is believed that the findings will further facilitate advances in treatment options for breast cancer patients .

My mother tends to be rather enthusiastic when it comes to our family’s medical history, a mental Rolodex of our collective symptoms and diagnoses. By comparison, I insist on seeing illness through a rose-colored microscope, blocking out hospital stays and surgeries as too depressing for long-term memory storage. Her fondness for medical chattiness with anyone in a white coat stems from familiarity — years in treatment and recovery from breast cancer. But there’s no denying her gift of gab when it comes to getting doctors to order that extra test or probe a little further into a mysterious illness.

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, along with a number of other plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that the BRCA gene patents "stifle research that could lead to cures and limit women's options regarding their medical care." The suit was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against Myriad Genetics, the US Patent and Trademark Office, and the University of Utah Research Foundation, which holds the patents to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. The research foundation exclusively licensed the rights to perform diagnostic tests on the genes to Myriad, which provides genetic testing for ovarian and breast cancer. Myriad also is co-owner of several of the patents challenged in the suit. In total, the plaintiffs are challenging the legality and constitutionality of four categories of claims in seven US patents. "Knowledge about our own bodies and the ability to make decisions about our health care are some of our most personal and fundamental rights," Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement. "The government should not be granting private entities control over something as personal and basic to who we are as our genes," he said. "Moreover, granting patents that limit scientific research, learning and the free flow of information violates the First Amendment." The lawsuit claims that Myriad maintains a monopoly over any genetic testing to determine the presence or absence of mutations on the human BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. The ACLU said in a statement that this monopoly "hampers clinical diagnosis and serves as a disincentive for research because Myriad not only has the right to enforce its patents against other entities but also has the rights to future mutations discovered on the BRCA2 gene." According to the lawsuit, Myriad's exclusive rights also have "resulted in a disparity in the amount of information known about genetic mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 in ethnic groups other than Caucasians." In addition, the ACLU said that the patents have several negative consequences for patients, including women not being able to afford Myriad's BRCAnalysis test, which could cost patients as much as $3,000, depending on insurance coverage. It also said that patients can't get a second opinion on their test results, and patients who receive an inconclusive result do not have an option to seek additional testing elsewhere. The ACLU's lawsuit is, in effect, challenging the entire practice of gene patenting, and the outcome of the case could have wide-reaching effects for the research and genetic diagnostics fields. The organization noted that around 20 percent of human genes currently are patented, including genes associated with Alzheimer's disease, muscular dystrophy, colon cancer, and asthma. The ACLU also believes it is the first to apply the First Amendment to a gene patent challenge. Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Association for Molecular Pathology, the American College of Medical Genetics, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, the College of American Pathologists, advocacy group Breast Cancer Action, several medical geneticists, and others representing women and scientific associations. The lawsuit comes several months after the European Patent Office decided that Myriad's patent covering the BRCA1 gene be maintained but in an amended and more limited form.

Next week a baby will be born without the gene for breast cancer, according to the BBC. But he said that, in this case, not carrying the BRCA1 gene would not guarantee any daughter born to the couple would be unaffected by breast cancer because there are other genetic and environmental causes. Dr Alan Thornhill, scientific director of the London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre, said: 'While the technology and approach used in this case is fairly routine, it is the first time in the UK that a family has successfully eliminated a mutant breast cancer gene for their child. It is a victory for both the parents and the HFEA that licensed this treatment.

Men whose mothers, sisters or daughters test positive for a breast cancer-causing mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes may also have the mutation and be at increased risk for cancer, a new study finds.

Ashkenazi Jewish women with ovarian cancer live significantly longer if they carry specific mutations of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes known to raise risks for breast cancer.

A newly discovered role played by the breast cancer gene BRCA1 in repairing damaged DNA may help explain why women who inherit a mutated version of the gene are more likely to develop breast and ovarian cancer

There's more evidence that mutations in the BRCA2 cancer susceptibility gene can contribute to prostate neoplasia as well as to breast and ovarian malignancies

Among women at high risk for breast and gynecologic cancers, protection conferred by removing their ovaries and fallopian tubes differs according to their BRCA mutation, researchers reported