A missing link found to breast cancer

An unexpected discovery may well lead to new tests to determine who is most at risk for inheritable breast cancer, which affects about 8,500 women each year in the United States alone. It could also play a role in designing new treatments for 170,000-plus cases of noninheritable breast cancer. The discovery came from Alan D'Andrea's work on one of the rarest diseases on Earth, Fanconi anemia, which affects only 500 families out of 280 million people in the United States. D'Andrea's research bolsters the idea that rare maladies can provide key insights into common diseases that sicken and kill many thousands of people. After years of research, D'Andrea and his colleagues discovered that a gene responsible for Fanconi anemia also plays a key role in inheritable breast cancer.