Rare disease provides cancer clues

Through a series of what they call "eureka moments," a research team at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found an association, then a conclusive tie, between mutated genes for a rare lethal disease called Fanconi anemia and two genes responsible for most inherited breast cancers. "In fact, the breast cancer genes themselves can cause Fanconi anemia and all the other cancers suffered by young people with the disease," says Alan D'Andrea, leader of the team and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "As a result, genes once thought to be involved only in breast cancer could provide us with a means for early detection of many different cancers." In addition to Harvard researchers, the Fanconi team includes scientists from Oregon, the Netherlands, and Japan. What's more, Fanconi genes hold the key to producing a promising protein, an enzyme that may lead to a drug that fixes or prevents DNA damage, a problem that underlies both hereditary and nonhereditary cancers.