White Blood Cell BRCA1 Promoter Methylation Status and Ovarian Cancer Risk: A Perspective

Lønning and colleagues reported substantially increased BRCA1 promoter region methylation in patients with ovarian cancer relative to a control population in 2 independent case–control studies. The editorialist believes that this and previous studies make it clear that BRCA1 constitutional methylation is strongly associated with the same tumor types as BRCA1 mutation. Thus, it may be seen as an alternate mechanism of BRCA1 inactivation, leading to an increased risk for breast or ovarian cancer in which tumors are methylated for BRCA1.

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