Identifying and validating novel susceptibility genes for breast cancer

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the US with approximately 227,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 40,000 breast cancer deaths predicted in 2012. Breast cancer has a strong heritable component with approximately 15% to 20% of cases exhibiting a family history of the disease. Susceptibility to breast cancer is associated with rare germline variants in high-risk genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, several intermediate-risk (3 to 5 fold) predisposition genes such as PALB2 and CHEK2, and many common genetic variants associated with modest (