Breakthrough : the quest to isolate the gene for hereditary breast cancer

Breast cancer is an increasingly serious public health problem.

In the UK alone 15,000 women die of it annually. Despite a long list of suspected risk factors, such as dietary fat, oral contraceptives, age of menopause, the root cause of breast cancer remains unknown.But amidst the confusion, a genuine breakthrough is imminent: scientists are poised to take the biggest step yet towards understanding breast cancer.

Research shows that women whose mothers and sisters have had the disease are twice as likely to contract it themselves.

It would appear the strong genetic component is the best clue to solving the mystery.

In a landmark discovery in 1990, a team of US researchers led by a top geneticist, Mary Claire King, traced the location of the crucial gene to one of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes - chromosome 17.

Since then, the world's geneticists have joined the search for the gene for breast cancer.

The consequences for diagnosis of breast cancer and the development of improved therapies is immeasurable.An accessible and up-to-date analysis of the research, and a description of the many people involved in it feature in this book, which charts the progress towards this discovery.