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Nature Cell Biology 10, 377 - 379 (2008)
doi:10.1038/ncb0408-377

BRCA1 and stem cells: tumour typecasting

Matthew J. Smalley1, Jorge S. Reis-Filho1 & Alan Ashworth1

  1. Matthew J. Smalley, Jorge S. Reis-Filho and Alan Ashworth are at The Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research, Fulham Road, London, SW3 6JB, UK.
    e-mail: Alan.Ashworth@icr.ac.uk
    e-mail: Matthew.Smalley@icr.ac.uk
    e-mail: Jorge.Reis-Filho@icr.ac.uk


Phenotypic variation between tumour types is likely to reflect the nature of the cell of origin and the genes involved in pathogenesis. Compared with most sporadic breast cancers, those arising in carriers of BRCA1 mutations usually have distinctive pathological characteristics. A new study suggests that a role for BRCA1 in the determination of stem-cell fate may explain this phenomenon.

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