Breast cancer: Gene mutation study offers hope

Chinese breast and ovarian cancer patients have been found to have the same pattern of gene mutations in a study done by a local medical researcher, raising hopes that a tailor-made genetic test can be developed to help Chinese fend off cancer.

The study by Hong Kong Hereditary Breast Cancer Family Registry analysed 535 Chinese breast and ovarian cancer patients for hereditary mutations in the genes known as BRCA, which increase the risk for both cancers.

These gene mutations have mainly been reported in Caucasians and Ashkenazi Jews (who have mainly central and eastern Europe an ancestry) and its prevalence is less known among Chinese and other Asians.

Ten per cent of the study subjects were found to carry the BRCA mutations. Of these, about one in four carry mutations in the four same spots in DNA genetic sequencing. The results of the study were published last month in PLOS ONE, an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the US-based Public Library of Science.

Dr Ava Kwong Hoi-wai, chairwoman of the registry and chief of Queen Mary Hospital's breast surgery division at University of Hong Kong, says the findings are significant in that they might prove that Chinese cancer sufferers carry a unique pattern of gene mutations.

Everyone has BRCA genes. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are known as tumour suppressors because they help repair damaged DNA in cells that have divided improperly. But when either of those genes mutate, the repair process can go awry.