The incidence of male patients detected with p53 mutations (41.4%) in this series is concordant with the incidence of p53 mutations in female breast cancer, supporting the idea that cancer of the male breast is similar to the female counterpart.
Germ-line mutations in the recently cloned BRCA1 gene at 17q21 is considered to be responsible for the disease in a majority of the breast-ovarian cancer families and in 40-45% of the site-specific breast cancer families, but appears not to be involved in families with both male and female breast cancer cases.
The same BRCA2 mutation appears to be associated with different cancer phenotypes in this population including male and female breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreas cancer and ovarian cancer.
Two cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 on chromosome 17q12-21 and BRCA2 on chromosome 13q12-13, are thought to be responsible for approximately 80% of families containing multiple cases of early-onset female breast cancer.
Two cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 on chromosome 17q12-21 and BRCA2 on chromosome 13q12-13, are thought to be responsible for approximately 80% of families containing multiple cases of early-onset female breast cancer.
To estimate the proportion of breast cancer families due to BRCA1 or BRCA2, we performed mutation screening of the entire coding regions of both genes supplemented with linkage analysis of 31 families, 8 containing male breast cancers and 23 site-specific female breast cancer.
Germline mutations of BRCA2 are predicted to account for approximately 35% of families with multiple case, early onset female breast cancer, and they are also associated with an increased risk of male breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer and pancreatic cancer.
As for its biological functions, PSAcan no longer be regarded as a specific prostate molecule associated mainly with semen liquefaction when it has a possible role as a prognostic indicator in female breast cancer.
Mutations in the BRCA2 gene account for the majority of the families with male and female breast cancer cases, and a number of BRCA2 mutations have been reported in males with breast cancer.
Given the importance of androgen and androgen receptor (AR) in the control of female breast growth and the potential association with female breast cancer, we evaluated the AR expression in 114 female breast cancers and further analyzed why AR expression was lost.