Latest BRCA1 Stories

Two new studies from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia advance the search for genetic events that result in neuroblastoma, a puzzling, often deadly type of childhood cancer.Originating in the peripheral nervous system, neuroblastoma is the most common solid cancer of early childhood and causes 15 percent of all childhood cancer deaths. "Only two years ago we had very little idea of what causes neuroblastoma," study leader John M. Maris, M.D., chief of Oncology and director of...

 Many women now have the option of having a genetic test to determine their cancer risk. Now, a new study shows mothers who share their test results with their children are more satisfied with their decision that those who don't.Researchers from the Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center interviewed 221 mothers and 124 co-parents (who were primarily fathers) prior to the mother's genetic test for a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. These genes are responsible for a majority of inherited...

Patenting pure genes linked to diseases is unconstitutional and slows down research progress, civil liberties advocates claim. American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero says constitutional rights to knowledge about the human body and to make pertinent healthcare decisions are at stake when private companies are allowed to hold patents on genes found responsible for diseases, CNN reported Wednesday. The ACLU and Yeshiva University's law school filed suit in U.S....

ACLU Releases Video Showing How Restrictive Gene Patents Hurt Women NEW YORK, May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Breast cancer survivor Genae Girard underwent genetic testing to determine whether she's also at risk for ovarian cancer and should have her ovaries removed. But the test didn't come with a second opinion -- a problem for any woman facing a decision that will impact her ability to have children. That's because only one company holds the patents on the genes associated with breast and...

BETHESDA, Md., May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) has joined the Association for Molecular Pathology, the College of American Pathologists, and the American Society for Clinical Pathology in a lawsuit filed today charging that patents on the human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer interfere with diagnostic testing, stifle research and limit women's options regarding their health care. The lawsuit challenges patents on the BRCA1...

Gene Patents Stifle Patient Access To Medical Care And Critical Research NEW YORK, May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (PUBPAT) filed a lawsuit today charging that patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer stifle research that could lead to cures and limit women's options regarding their medical care. Mutations along the genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, are...

U.S. cancer researchers say they have identified an area on chromosome 6 that's strongly linked with breast cancer susceptibility in Asian women. The Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators led by Dr. Wei Zheng said identification of the genetic locus might help guide efforts to find the specific genes linked with sporadic -- or non-inherited -- forms of the disease. Genetics plays an important role in the disease and some breast cancer susceptibility genes -- such as BRCA1 and BRCA2...

A gene mutation could increase the potential of aggressive tumor development in men suffering from prostate cancer, U.S. researchers say. Dr. Robert Burk of New York's Yeshiva University said his study found that men with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation were facing a greater risk of developing aggressive tumors, The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday. The targeted gene mutation is most commonly linked to breast cancer. The study, which only involved male test subjects of Ashkenazi...

 Men who develop prostate cancer face an increased risk of having an aggressive tumor if they carry a so-called breast cancer gene mutation, scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report in today's issue of Clinical Cancer Research. The findings could help to guide prostate-cancer patients and their physicians in choosing treatment options.The study, involving 979 men with prostate cancer and 1251 men without the disease, looked at whether...

Prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy"”removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes--reduces the relative risk of breast cancer by approximately 50 percent and the risk of ovarian and fallopian tube cancer by approximately 80 percent in women who carry a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, researchers report in the January 13 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.Previous studies have shown substantial reduction in the risks of breast and ovarian or fallopian tube cancers...