Germline mutation analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Yugoslav breast/ovarian cancer families

The frequency of germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations was tested in Yugoslav breast and breast/ovarian cancer families using combined heteroduplex/singl e-strand conformation polymorphism analysis for the entire coding region of both genes. Three different recurrent BRCA1 mutations (one 185delAG, one 3 447del4 and two 5382insC) were identified in 4 of 12 families (33%), wherea s no definite disease-causing alterations of BRCA2 was detected. Genotype a nalysis revealed a possible common founder effect for each 185delAG and 538 2insC. The relatively high frequency of germline BRCA1 mutations determined in this panel of families confirms the important role of BRCA1 in disease predisposition in the Yugoslav population, while the lack of population spe cific founder and/or unique mutations show the need of further analysis of samples from this yet unexamined region of Europe.