"Background: Genome...association studies have identified multiple genetic variants associated with breast cancer. The extent to which these [genes] add to existing risk-assessment...is unknown."

So these Ph.D.'s, M.D.'s and D.Sc.'s at The National Cancer Institute, Harvard U. and a host of other cancer centers studied these risk factors in 5590 subjects and of 5998 control subjects [those without these so-called 'breast cancer' genes] and compared the two groups to see if there was correlation between having the 'cancer' genes and getting breast cancer and those without the genes and their getting breast cancer.]

After studying the data, they concluded that those women who had genes that presumably increased their risk for breast cancer actually had no higher rate of breast cancer occurrence than those who did not have the so-called 'cancer genes.'

Is Breast Cancer in Your Genes? Bibliography

The New England Journal of Med., vol. 362, 2010. By: Drs. Wacholder, Hartge, Prentice, Feigelson, Diver, et al., Div. of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Nat. Cancer Inst., Div. of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Center Res. Ctr., Seattle, WA, Dept. of Epidem., Amer. Cancer Soc., Atlanta, GA, Inst. for Health Res., Kaiser Permanente, Denver, CO., INSERM, Lyon, France, Div. of Epidem. and Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health.

Dept. of Med., Brigham and Women's Hosp. and Harvard Med. School, all in Boston, MA, Dept. of Cancer Epidem. and Prevention, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Inst. of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland, Div. of Med. Oncology and Hematol., L.A. Biomedical Res. Inst. at Harbor-UCLA Med. Ctr., Torrance, CA., Ohio State U*., Columbus, OH, and Info. Mgt. Services, Silver Spring, MD.

*Division not listed.