ArticleWomen with mutations in the gene, called BRIP1, have twice the normal risk of breast cancer, British researchers report in the November issue of Nature Genetics.
"Others have proposed that it might be associated with breast cancer, but we are the first to actually show it," said Dr. Nazneen Rahman, a professor of cancer genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, England.
Still, BRIP1 probably plays only a minor role in breast cancer risk generally, the researchers added, since the mutation itself is uncommon. The increase in risk associated with this gene is small in relation to the risk associated with mutations in other breast cancer genes, such as the better-known BRCA1 and BRCA2.
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