Polymorphisms in RAD51, XRCC2, and XRCC3 are not related to breast cancer risk.

Highly penetrant, but rare, mutations in genes involved in double-strand break repair (i.e., BRCA1 and BRCA2) are associated with a risk for breast cancer of 40% to 65% by age 70 years (1, 2). Polymorphisms in other double-strand break repair genes are thought to contribute to the risk for the disease, either independently or through modifying the risk associated with rare mutations. This study focuses on polymorphisms in three genes involved in the homologous recombination of doublestrand breaks: RAD51 5¶ untranslated region 135 G>C (rs1801320), X-ray repair cross-complementing group 2 (XRCC2) ArgHis (rs3218536), and XRCC3 ThrMet (rs861539) in relation to breast cancer risk in the New York University Women’s Health Study cohort.