According to University of Washington researchers, genetic testing for breast cancer and ovarian cancer is not a perfect science. Between 2002 and 2005, 300 breast cancer patients, who were at higher risk of cancer due to inherited genetic mutations of the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, were evaluated. The researchers used multiple screening tests to identify mutations not only in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, but also other inherited mutations in other genes that may predict breast cancer, such as CHEK2, TP53 and PTEN.

Of the women in the study, 17 percent of the patients carried mutations that went undetected, and 12 percent of them had BRCA1or BRCA2 genes that the standard tests missed. The failure of the standard tests was higher with women who were under 40 years of age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis.

In the U.S., 10 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have the BRCA genes. The researchers stated that the lifetime risk of breast cancer is as high as 80 percent for women who have mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA 2 genes. The risk of ovarian cancer is 40 percent or higher for women who have a BRCA 1 mutation, and 20 percent or higher for women who have the BRCA 2 mutation.

Stem cells are master cells, the cells that all cells come from, before they become specialized cells that go on to replicate themselves into cells with similar properties. Researchers worldwide are attempting to isolate and characterize cancer stem cells. Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Stem Cell Research Program researchers are making discoveries into the origin and behavior of cancer stem cells producing new cancer cells dividing uncontrollably, promoting new growth and metastasis of new tumors.

Discovering the genetic mutations that cause cancer stem cells to behave abnormally may allow for the development of therapies to prevent the out-of-control replication by stopping the process at its cancer stem cell source. The Cancer Stem Cell Research Program scientists have discovered and isolated human leukemia and human breast cancer stem cells, and are now close to isolating cancer stem cells for brain cancer, ovarian cancer, melanoma and bladder cancer. Stem cell research is so new, it would be difficult to predict, at this point in time, how much of a curative factor therapies resulting from stem cell research will have on cancers. However, it is an exciting field of study to watch, with the promise of illuminating a complex understanding into the heart of how cancer cells behave, grow, and survive, by identifying and understanding cancer stem cells, the master cells of cancer.