BRCA1, a Potential Predictive Biomarker in the Treatment of Breast Cancer

Learning Objectives After completing this course, the reader will be able to: List the biomarkers that are currently used and those that may be of potential use in the management of breast cancer. Explain how BRCA1 is involved in the development of both inherited and sporadic breast cancer. Discuss the potential role of BRCA1 as a determinant of response to different types of chemotherapy agents. Describe the relationship between BRCA1 and basal‐like breast cancer. Access and take the CME test online and receive 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ at CME.TheOncologist.com To date, estrogen receptor, progestogen receptor, and HER2/neu represent molecular biomarkers currently used in routine clinical practice to aid treatment decisions. Over the last few years, a large body of preclinical and retrospective clinical data has accumulated that suggests that BRCA1 mutation functions as a novel predictive marker of response to chemotherapy. This article reviews the role of BRCA1 as a predictive marker of chemotherapy response in breast cancer and examines the link between BRCA1 deficiency and the basal‐like phenotype. Search strategy. Data for this article were identified through MEDLINE and PubMed searches for published reports using the terms BRCA1, breast cancer, basal‐like, chemotherapy, prognosis, and predictive markers. In some cases, due to the restriction of space, readers are referred to review articles to allow further reading. Only articles published in English were included.