Altogether 61 index patients of Northern Finnish breast and/or ovarian cancer families were analyzed by Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) method in order to identify exon deletions and duplications in BRCA1, BRCA2 and PALB2. The families have been comprehensively screened for germline mutation in these genes by conventional methods of mutation analysis and were found negative. This evidence concerns the gene BRCA1 and ovarian carcinoma.