Cancer treatment may change in the future as a result of research that indicates the manner in which BRCA1, the breast cancer gene, causes cancer.
Researchers have known about the gene for more than a decade, but have only recently begun to understand how mutations in it cause cancer.
An international team of researchers that included scientists from Columbia University and Lund University in Sweden have discovered that the mutation destroys a gene that suppresses tumours. When the suppressor gene, called PTEN, stops working, tumour cells receive a signal to grow.
Dr. Ramon Parsons, a professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, is excited by the discovery.
In the past, doctors had limited resources to treat these forms of cancer, which led to poor prognoses, according to Professor Parsons. Knowing that PTEN is involved offers a target for therapy.
BRCA1 is also a factor in ovarian, bowel and prostate cancer.