Previous in vitro experiments using breast cancer cells showed that BRCA1-negative cells were less sensitive to paxlitaxel than BRCA1-positive cells (Tassone et al. 2003), and that BRCA1 might be required for the induction of apoptosis in response to paclitaxel in breast cancer cells (Quinn et al. 2003). Here, BRCA1 is linked to breast carcinoma.