BRCA2 and Friedreich ataxia: As further evidence of a fundamental common causal basis between these diseases, germline bi- and mono-allelic loss-of-function mutations in four of these genes cause FA and BrCa, respectively: FANCD1/BRCA2 [3,4], FANCJ/BRIP1 [5-8], FANCN/PALB2 [9-11] and FANCO/RAD51C [12,13] (more recent data suggests that mutations in RAD51C may be primarily linked to ovarian cancer risk [14]).