Scientists unlock breast cancer gene's secret

Scientists have uncovered one of the breast cancer-causing secrets of a gene that blights the lives of generations of related women.

The faulty gene not only causes breast cancer in up to 60% of those who inherit it, but also raises the risk of ovarian and prostate cancer.

Cambridge University scientists have revealed how the so-called BRCA2 gene's interaction with other cells causes cancerous mutations.

Sir Paul Nurse, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "By focusing in on the fine detail of the cancer-causing process, this study has given us an exciting leap forward in our understanding of the disease on a molecular level.

"The work is not just an important advance scientifically, but should also have a real impact on the future development of cancer treatments."

The new research, funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, concentrated on the BRCA2 gene.

As many as one in 200 women have an inherited mutation in one of two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, which greatly increases their chances of developing breast cancer.

Research leader Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, of the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre in Cambridge, explained: "Understanding the nuts and bolts of BRCA2's function should in the future allow us to develop new types of anti-cancer drug."

The research team explained in science journal Nature that BRCA2 normally controls a molecule called Rad51, which is involved in repairing DNA and keeps the genes in a cell intact.

The research studied precisely how the BRCA2 protein molecule, produced from the gene, interacts with Rad51 and how the process goes wrong when BRCA2 is faulty.