Similar pathways may be involved in hereditary and sporadic ovarian cancers.(Brief Article)

2002 AUG 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New research suggests that BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations lead to hereditary ovarian cancers through different pathways, but that these pathways may be similar to ones at work in sporadic ovarian cancers. These findings appear in the July 3, 2002, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are tumor suppressor genes that play important roles in cellular functioning such as DNA damage repair. Mutations in these genes have been associated with 5-10% of epithelial ovarian cancers. Whether BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations lead to cancer through similar or different pathways is unclear. A past study of BRCA1 and BRCA2-linked breast cancers revealed distinct differences in gene expression patterns between the two types of mutations.

To determine whether genetic differences also exist in BRCA-linked ovarian cancers, Amir A. Jazaeri, MD, and Edison T. Liu, MD, of the U.S. National Cancer Institute and their colleagues compared gene expression patterns of tumors from 18 ovarian cancer patients with BRCA1 mutations, 16 patients with BRCA2 mutations, and 27 patients with sporadic ovarian cancers.

The authors found that overall patterns of gene expression differed between the BRCA1-associated and BRCA2-associated tumors. Of the roughly 6500 genes analyzed, 110 were found to be ...