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  • Brief Communication
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PALB2, which encodes a BRCA2-interacting protein, is a breast cancer susceptibility gene

Abstract

PALB2 interacts with BRCA2, and biallelic mutations in PALB2 (also known as FANCN), similar to biallelic BRCA2 mutations, cause Fanconi anemia. We identified monoallelic truncating PALB2 mutations in 10/923 individuals with familial breast cancer compared with 0/1,084 controls (P = 0.0004) and show that such mutations confer a 2.3-fold higher risk of breast cancer (95% confidence interval (c.i.) = 1.4–3.9, P = 0.0025). The results show that PALB2 is a breast cancer susceptibility gene and further demonstrate the close relationship of the Fanconi anemia–DNA repair pathway and breast cancer predisposition.

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Figure 1: PALB2 mutations in familial breast cancer.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the participating families who were recruited to the study by the Familial Breast Cancer Collaboration (UK) which includes the following contributors: A. Ardern-Jones, J. Berg, A. Brady, N. Bradshaw, C. Brewer, G. Brice, B. Bullman, J. Campbell, B. Castle, R. Cetnarsryj, C. Chapman, C. Chu, N. Coates, T. Cole, R. Davidson, A. Donaldson, H. Dorkins, F. Douglas, D. Eccles, R. Eeles, F. Elmslie, D.G. Evans, S. Goff, S. Goodman, D. Goudie, J. Gray, L. Greenhalgh, H. Gregory, N. Haites, S.V. Hodgson, T. Homfray, R.S. Houlston, L. Izatt, L. Jeffers, V. Johnson-Roffey, F. Kavalier, C. Kirk, F. Lalloo, I. Locke, M. Longmuir, J. Mackay, A. Magee, S. Mansour, Z. Miedzybrodzka, J. Miller, P. Morrison, V. Murday, J. Paterson, M. Porteous, N. Rahman, M. Rogers, S. Rowe, S. Shanley, A. Saggar, G. Scott, L. Side, L. Snadden, M. Steel, M. Thomas and S. Thomas. We thank A. Hall and E. Mackie for coordination of sample collection. We acknowledge use of DNA from the British 1958 Birth Cohort collection, funded by the Medical Research Council grant G0000934 and the Wellcome Trust grant 068545/Z/02. P.K. is supported by a grant from the Breast Cancer Campaign. A.E. is supported by US Army Medical Research and Material Command grant W81XWH-05-1-0204. This research was supported by donations from the Geoffrey Berger and Daniel Falkner Charitable Trusts, by the Institute of Cancer Research and by Cancer Research UK.

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Contributions

The study was designed by N.R. and M.R.S. The molecular analyses were performed by S.S., P.K., A.R., S.R., K.S., R.B., T.C., H.J. and S.H. under the direction of N.R. The statistical analyses were performed by D.T., A.E. and L.M. under the direction of D.F.E. The familial collections were initiated by D.G.E. and D.E. and were collected by the Breast Cancer Susceptibility Collaboration (UK). The manuscript was written by N.R. and M.R.S.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nazneen Rahman.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

FANCN (also known as PALB2) nontruncating coding variants. (PDF 51 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 41 kb)

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Rahman, N., Seal, S., Thompson, D. et al. PALB2, which encodes a BRCA2-interacting protein, is a breast cancer susceptibility gene. Nat Genet 39, 165–167 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1959

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