Novel method provides insights in biology of breast cancer

Matthew Freedman, MD

In light of recent large population studies, it’s known that some people carry inherited DNA changes that increase their lifetime risk of diseases, including breast and prostate cancer. To the surprise of scientists, scores of these “risk alleles” have been found in vast regions of the genome – sometimes called “junk DNA” or “dark matter” – that don’t carry the genetic code for proteins, so how they influence an individual’s cancer risk isn’t known.
In a new study, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that several such alleles affect DNA …