title: Allele losses in the region 17q12-21 in familial breast and ovarian cancer involve the wild-type chromosome.
abstract: A predisposing gene for breast and ovarian cancer has recently been mapped to chromosome 17q12-21. If this gene is a tumour suppressor gene, allele losses would be expected in the tumours of affected family members and the losses should affect the wild-type chromosome, reflecting the need for inactivation of the wild-type allele at the predisposing locus. In four multiple case breast-ovarian cancer families, we have found that in each of nine tumours which showed allele losses, the losses were from the wild-type chromosome. This suggests that the putative 'breast-ovarian' cancer gene is indeed a tumour suppressor gene.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Easton
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Ponder
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002886:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D010375:Pedigree