Mutation screening of RAD51C in male breast cancer patients

Excerpt

We read with great interest the paper by Akbari and colleagues [1] in a recent issue of Breast Cancer Research. The authors reported on the absence of RAD51C mutations in 454 patients with BRCA1/2-negative familial breast cancer/ovarian cancer (BC/OC). In the initial report by Meindl and colleagues [2], RAD51C mutations were identified in 6 out of 480 patients with BRCA1/2-negative familial BC/OC. Interestingly, on the basis of histopathologic features, including intermediate grade (G2), estrogen receptor-positive (ER⁺), progesterone receptor-positive (PR⁺), and HER2-negative (HER2^-) expression, RAD51C-associated BCs were found to be similar to BRCA2-associated BCs [2]. BRCA2 is known to play a significant role in male BC (MBC); however, no occurrence of MBC was observed in the six RAD51C families described [2]. …