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EMSY, a BRCA-2 partner in crime

Nature Medicine volume 10, pages 127–128 (2004)Cite this article

Sporadic breast cancers only rarely contain BRCA2 or BRCA1 mutations, despite the presence of such mutations in inherited breast and ovarian cancers. The identification of a new binding partner for BRCA-2 sheds light on this incongruity.

The majority of inherited breast and ovarian cancers arise in women with loss-of-function mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Sporadic breast cancers, however, regularly contain normal BRCA alleles. Although BRCA1 seems to be epigenetically silenced in some sporadic cancers1, no such silencing has been detected for BRCA2, despite much searching. BRCA1 and BRCA2 stand out as oddities, since tumor suppressor genes that are disabled in inherited cancers (such as the genes encoding retinoblastoma, adenomatous polyposis coli, p53 and von Hippel-Lindau) are also commonly inactivated in sporadic versions of the same cancers. How can this discrepancy be explained?

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Figure 1: EMSY and BRCA-2.

Renee Lucas

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  1. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and The Harvard Medical School, 44 Binney Street, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    David M Livingston

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  1. David M Livingston
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Livingston, D. EMSY, a BRCA-2 partner in crime. Nat Med 10, 127–128 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0204-127

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0204-127

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