BRCA2 is a well-known susceptibility gene in hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome; the encoded protein is involved in the homologous recombination pathway for double-stranded DNA break repair, which is crucial for maintenance of genome stability (information provided by RefSeq (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/refseq/)). The gene discussed is BRCA2; the disease is hereditary breast ovarian cancer syndrome.