How many more breast cancer predisposition genes are there?

Excerpt

Next year marks the 10th anniversary of the mapping of the breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 to chromosome 17 [1], and the identification of the TP53 gene as the cause of the Li-Fraumeni syndrome [2]. As a result of these discoveries, and the subsequent discovery of other breast cancer susceptibility genes, notably BRCA2 [3], inherited susceptibility has risen from relative obscurity to have a central role in breast cancer research. Understanding the biological mechanisms that underlie the susceptibility genes has become a major research activity, and of course mutation testing is now a major part of clinical genetics practice, with the prospects for improved prevention and treatment of the disease in women at high risk. Thus, it is natural to ask whether there are any more genes to find, what their characteristics might be and how we might go about finding them. …