AKT1 is frequently up-regulated in sporadic breast cancer, whereas BRCA1 is frequently mutated in familial breast cancer. Because BRCA1 is involved in homologous recombination (HR), we addressed whether AKT1 also has an effect on this process. We showed that AKT1 repressed HR through cytoplasmic retention of BRCA1 and RAD51 proteins, resulting in a BRCA1-deficient-like phenotype. This process d...

Recently, the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2 has been identified in chromosome 13q, a region that also contains the retinoblastoma gene RB1. To elucidate a possible role of BRCA2 and RB1 in sporadic breast tumorigenesis, allelic imbalance (AI) at 13q loci was examined in 78 primary sporadic breast tumors. AI was found in 52-63% of tumors. Nine tumors showed AI only in the BRCA2 region ...

Purpose: LKB1 (also called STK11) is a recently identified tumor suppressor gene in which its mutation can lead to Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, characterized by gastrointestinal polyps and cancers of different organ systems. Weak expression of this gene does occur at a certain frequency in sporadic breast cancer. This indicates that LKB1 gene may relate to the tumorigenesis of breast cancer. Experim...

PURPOSE LKB1 (also called STK11) is a recently identified tumor suppressor gene in which its mutation can lead to Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, characterized by gastrointestinal polyps and cancers of different organ systems. Weak expression of this gene does occur at a certain frequency in sporadic breast cancer. This indicates that LKB1 gene may relate to the tumorigenesis of breast cancer. EXPERI...

Aberrant double-stranded break (DSB) repair leads to genomic instability, which is a hallmark of malignant cells. Double-stranded breaks are repaired by two pathways: homologous recombination (HR) and nonhomologous DNA end joining (NHEJ). It is not known whether these repair pathways are affected in sporadic breast tumors. Here, we examined the efficiency of HR and NHEJ repair in a panel of spo...

Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 account for a significant proportion of hereditary breast cancers. Earlier studies have shown that inherited and sporadic tumors progress along different somatic genetic pathways and that global gene expression profiles distinguish between these groups. To determine whether genomic profiles similarly discriminate among BRCA1, BRCA2, and sporadic tumors, we establish...

BACKGROUND Promoter methylation is a common epigenetic mechanism to silence tumor suppressor genes during breast cancer development. We investigated whether BRCA1-associated breast tumors show cancer-predictive methylation patterns similar to those found in sporadic tumors. PATIENTS AND METHODS Quantitative multiplex methylation-specific PCR of 11 genes involved in breast carcinogenesis (RARB...

Breast-conserving therapy (BCT) for sporadic breast cancer has been widely accepted by surgeons and patients alike. While BCT is associated with a higher risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR), it has not been shown to decrease overall survival (OS) in comparison with mastectomy. Many women with a BRCA1/2 mutation opt for mastectomy instead of breast-conserving measures at the time ...

Mutations of the BRCA1 gene in tumor DNA from patients with sporadic breast cancer have not yet been observed. Nevertheless, BRCA1 activity is markedly decreased in invasive breast tumors. Previous reports have shown that hypermethylation of the promoter region is an alternative mechanism to mutation for the inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. We examined the BRCA1 promoter region for hyper...

Germline mutations of E-cadherin have been identified in families with gastric cancer. Moreover, E-cadherin has been shown to be inactivated in the majority of human invasive lobular breast cancers. E-cadherin is a tumor suppressor gene located in l6q22.1, a region which is frequently deleted in a variety of tumors. We therefore analysed 15 families with lobular breast cancer or breast and gast...