Mutation analysis of five candidate genes in familial breast cancer

Most of the known breast cancer susceptibility genes (BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2 and ATM) are involved in the damage response pathway. Other members of this pathway are therefore good candidates for additional breast cancer susceptibility genes. ATR, along with ATM, plays a central role in DNA damage recognition and Chk1 relays checkpoint signals from both ATR and ATM. PPP2R1B and PPP2R5B code for subunits of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), which regulates autophosphorylation of ATM. In addition, EIF2S6/Int-6, which was originally identified as a common integration site for the mouse mammary tumour virus in virally induced mouse mammary tumours, is a candidate breast cancer susceptibility gene because of its putative role in maintaining chromosome stability. To investigate the role of ATR, CHK1, PPP2R1B, PPP2R5B and EIF2S6/Int-6, we carried out mutation analysis of these genes in the index cases from non-BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer families. We also screened sporadic breast tumours for somatic mutations in PPP2R1B and PPP2R5B. Although we identified many novel variants, we found no evidence that highly penetrant germline mutations in these five genes contribute to familial breast cancer susceptibility.