Basser scientists were part of this Penn Medicine team effort studying PARP-1 expression and breast cancer.

Basser Executive Director Susan Domchek, MD, and Basser Director of Genetics Katherine L. Nathanson, MD, were involved in this study to examine the risk of various cancers associated with the PALB2 genetic mutation.

Ben Black, PhD, a professor at Penn Medicine and Basser funded scientist, recently published a paper exploring the mechanisms of PARP binding, which looks to explain the difference in efficiency of the various PARP inhibitor cancer treatments. 

This paper in Genetics in Medicine is a collaborative effort between Penn Medicine, the Basser Center, and researchers across the country. It is the first large-scale report on the CTNNA1 gene, which may represent a risk factor for early-onset gastric cancer and possibly breast cancer.

The Jewish Exponent highlights the BFOR Study, which offers no-cost testing to men and women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent for BRCA gene mutations. Basser Executive Director Susan Domchek, MD, a principal investigator on the study, notes that the Philadelphia area is still open for enrollment.

In a letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal, Basser’s Kara Maxwell, MD, PhD, and Susan Domchek, MD, responded to an article the paper recently published about genetic testing, pointing out that reinterpretation of a patient’s genetic testing results is an incredibly rare case.

In this editorial for Nature, Basser Executive Director Susan Domchek, MD, discusses genetic testing and breast cancer - which patients should be tested and what genetic mutations they should be tested for.

New guidelines from USPSTF on BRCA genetic testing recommend risk assessment, counseling, and genetic testing for women who meet certain criteria but fall short of encompassing important groups of individuals who are at risk, according to critics of the update, including Basser’s Susan Domchek, MD.