Mutations in ATM, Radiation Exposure and Breast Cancer Risk Among Black and White Women.

In some families, predisposition to breast cancer is inherited as a genetic trait. Thus far, a few highly penetrant genes responsible for inherited breast cancer have been identified. An important and unresolved question of breast cancer etiology is whether there are other genes which have a more moderate effect on breast cancer risk, possibly triggering disease only in the presence of specific environmental exposures, and possibly involving more women than do other inherited mutations. It has been suggested that mutations in the Ataxia-Telangiectasia gene ATM and cellular damage such as radiation exposure could be involved with breast cancer in this manner. In order to address this question, we are screening a population-based series of African-American and Caucasian breast cancer patients and controls as well as a series of patients with particular phenotypes for mutations in the ATM gene. This study will detect potential mutations in the ATM gene which confer breast cancer risk.