This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (7)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Oncology  • Breast Cancer  • Women's Health  • Women's Health, Other  • Genetics  • Genetic Counseling/ Testing/ Therapy  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: It is possible that improper heterochromatinization of X chromosomes in XY bodies of male heterozygous BRCA1 carriers may lead such male sperm cells to be less viable, given that products of the BRCA1 gene are presumed to play a role in this process.¹ Thus, male heterozygous carriers would be expected to have a greater proportion of female offspring. Indeed, de la Hoya et al² reported an excess of females among the offspring of BRCA1 mutation carriers but no such sex-ratio distortion affects the offspring of BRCA2 carriers. However, these results might have reflected an ascertainment bias of carriers through affected females.³ Because penetrance is higher at younger ages in BRCA1 than in BRCA2 female carriers,⁴ this bias could be stronger in BRCA1 than in BRCA2-associated families.

Selection bias among male BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers may arise because men with daughters are more likely to be . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Methods

Jean Feunteun, PhD
feunteun@igr.fr

Agnès Chompret, MD; Anne Helbling-Leclerc, PhD
Institut Gustave-Roussy
Villejuif, France

Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet, MD, PhD; Muriel Belotti, PhD
Institut Curie
Paris, France

Catherine Noguès, MD
Centre René Huguenin
Saint-Cloud, France

Catherine Bonaïti-Pellié, MD, PhD
INSERM U535
Villejuif, France

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Battle of the BRCA1/BRCA2 (offspring) sex ratios: truth or consequences
Agnese
J. Med. Genet. 2006;43:201-202.
FULL TEXT  

Sex ratio skewing of offspring in families with hereditary susceptibility to breast cancer
Domchek et al.
J. Med. Genet. 2005;42:511-513.
FULL TEXT