30-year puzzle in breast cancer solved

In a new study published today in Cell Reports, scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center demonstrate that mice lacking one copy of a gene called CTCF have abnormal DNA methylation and are markedly predisposed to cancer. CTCF is a very well-studied DNA binding protein that exerts a major influence on the architecture of the human genome, but had not been previously linked to cancer.

Over 30 years ago, frequent loss of one copy of chromosome 16 was first reported in breast cancer but the gene or genes responsible remained to be identified. Dr. Gala Filippova, staff scientist at Fred Hutch and co-author of the study, originally cloned the human CTCF gene and mapped it to chromosome 16, within the same region that is frequently lost in human cancers. That same year, Dr. Chris Kemp of the Human Biology Division at Fred Hutch, co-authored a paper demonstrating that…