BRCA1 and cancer: Women who carry a germline mutation in either the BRCA1 or the BRCA2 gene face a high lifetime risk of breast cancer (Ford et al, 1998) and, once diagnosed with breast cancer, face a high risk of second primary cancer in the contralateral breast (Robson et al, 1998; Verhoog et al, 1998, 2000; Haffty et al, 2002; Metcalfe et al, 2004; Brekelmans et al, 2007; Graeser et al, 2009).