In the case of BRCA1 and BRCA2, the patents are held by Myriad Genetics.
Because more than 99% of women do not have BRCA1 -- or BRCA2, for that matter.
Mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have been linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
In a healthy BRCA2 gene, molecules from the gene attach themselves to Rad51 like Velcro strips.
Along the way two breast cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, were discovered in 1994 and 1995.
One reckoning is that around 7% of breast cancers are related to the BRCA1 mutation, or the similar BRCA2.
Using free software (developed by my lab), you can scan that DNA for mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2.
Because more than 99% of women do not have the BRCA1 mutation -- or the BRCA2 mutation, for that matter.
The test could also help the one in 300 woman who carry a faulty gene known as BRCA1 or BRCA2.
The researchers believe that this process enables the BRCA2 to direct the Rad51 molecules to cells in need of repair.
Accordingly, BRCA1 and BRCA2 in their isolated state are not the same molecules as DNA as it exists in the body.
BRCA2 was identified by Professor Mike Stratton and a team of scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, in 1995.
"When the BRCA2 gene is faulty, a cell's genetic information becomes increasingly unstable, making it more likely that cancer will develop, " he said.
Scientists from the Centre for Research on Women's Health in Toronto led the study which looked at women with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation.
It was thought that having these mutations, to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, could make healthy cells less able to repair any damage caused by radiotherapy.
The case involved Myriad Genetics, which holds the patent rights on two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, that are associated with increased risks for breast and ovarian cancer.
For example, 23andMe tests for some gene variants involved in mildly raising breast cancer risk, but not genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2 that vastly raise breast cancer risk.
He has created free software that analyzes the genome for 68 mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 cancer genes, which raise the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
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In the UK, at least half of all prostate cancers are diagnosed in men aged 75 and over, but for faulty BRCA2 carriers the disease tends to occur earlier.
Male breast cancer is rare, with around 200 cases each year, compared with 33, 000 women, but scientists believe that about 10% of these may be linked to BRCA2 mutations.
First, the discovery of rare, high penetrance germ-line mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 identified a small subset of women with a very high life-time risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
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Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- short for breast cancer 1 and breast cancer 2 -- are involved in many cases of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, the institute said.
In a global study conducted by Dr. Steven Narod, senior scientist at Women's College Research Institute in Toronto, the United States had the highest rate of prophylactic mastectomy in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.
Ms Morgan said that following the identification of two key genes in the last decade (BRCA1 and BRCA2) genetic testing could now pinpoint whether a woman may be at high risk of developing breast cancer.
In a study of 288 women from 2001, the drug tamoxifen reduced breast-cancer incidence among healthy BRCA2 carriers by 62% compared with a placebo, though it didn't reduce breast-cancer incidence among healthy women with BRCA1 mutations.
Even if the woman knows she has a family history of breast cancer, which increases her own risk of developing it, it is useful to know whether BRCA1 or BRCA2 is present in its mutated form.
By combining the gene test for BRCA1 and BRCA2 with this extra genetic information, women who have a high number of the newly identified markers could find they have a nearly 100% risk of getting breast cancer.
Professor Ashok Venkitaraman and colleagues at the Hutchison Medical Research Council Centre in Cambridge, working with Dr. Luca Pellegrini and Professor Tom Blundell at the Cambridge University Department of Biochemistry, discovered that the BRCA2 gene controls a key molecule called Rad51.
First, though, let me remind readers that the genes in question, BRCA1 and BRCA2, are linked to an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer, a risk that was first discovered in 1994 by scientists at the University of Utah.
But for the average breast cancer patient who has neither the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation nor a close relative with breast cancer (Jolie's mother, for example, died from ovarian cancer), the risk of a new breast cancer in the nonaffected breast is less than 1%.
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