13^thGeneral Meeting of The Breast Cancer Linkage Consortium, November 29-December 1, 1999, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Excerpt

It was not particularly noted as an occasion for celebration, but the 13th meeting of the Breast Cancer Linkage Consortium (BCLC) did mark the 10th anniversary of the Consortium. Exactly 10 years ago, in November 1989, a small group of cancer geneticists and epidemiologists convened in Lyon, France, to initiate a joint effort with the aim being to find breast cancer predisposition genes through linkage analysis in multiple case families. Within a year, independent work by Dr King (then at Berkeley University, California, USA) led to the discovery of linkage to the BRCA1 locus [1]. This provided a decisive incentive toward the creation of what is now known as the BCLC database, stimulating scientists to contribute linkage information to replicate this finding [2]. Currently, this database holds pedigree information on 1122 breast cancer families, and includes data on health and carrier status, as well as several thousand person-years of follow up. These pedigrees are from all over the world, and have been submitted to the database by more than 75 research centres. Genetic defects in BRCA1 or BRCA2 have been identified in 522 and 192 families, respectively. Linkage information at polymorphic markers flanking BRCA1 and BRCA2 is available in almost 300 families. This database has allowed cumulative estimates to be made of the cancer risks conferred by mutations in BRCA1 [3] and BRCA2 [4,5]. Furthermore, it has provided estimates of the proportions of families affected by mutations in either gene, given a certain phenotype of the family as defined by the number of patients with breast or ovarian cancer [4]. …