US Patent For 2nd Breast Cancer Gene

Following its discovery last month, a patent application for the full sequence of the breast cancer-susceptability gene BRCA2 has been made by US biotechnology firm Myriad Genetics.

BRCA2, a candidate tumor suppressor gene, is only the second gene to be isolated which has been linked to breast cancer and cancers of the ovaries, prostate and eyes; BRCA1 was isolated in 1994.

Mutations in BRCA2, although being linked to the development of breast cancer in females to a similar degree as BRCA1, are thought to be less responsible for the development of ovarian cancer than abnormalities in the formerly discovered gene, but linked to a higher degree to breast cancer in males than mutations in BRCA1.