Scientists have discovered a gene that seems to protect against some breast cancers. By comparing healthy breast cells with breast-tumor cells, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor (N.Y.) Laboratory zeroed in on DNA differences in a gene they dubbed DBC2 on chromosome 8.
The gene was mutated, missing, or otherwise disabled in slightly more than half the lab-grown breast cancer cell lines tested, says study coauthor Masaaki Hamaguchi, a cancer geneticist at Cold Spring Harbor.
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