Why does BRCA2 make things worse?

[SandyBear2023]

In year two of treatment for stage 4 metastatic PC. The oncologist told me early on that my BRCA2 makes it harder to treat and more aggressive. Can anybody tell me what's up with BRCA2?

[witantric]

I will give it a shot. Let us say you are a person without BRCA2. Your cancer cells try to cannibalize resources and build there own ecosystem to survive and thrive. Without the mutation your body’s immune system puts some brakes on this cannibalizing behavior of cells. With the mutation, these brakes are weak. Cancerous cells can thrive more. This is the reason folks with BRCA1 and BRCA2 are not advised to go on AS

[SandyBear2023 in reply to witantric]

Thank you so much. What is "AS" though?

[Elbers123 in reply to SandyBear2023]

Active Surveillance

[tango65]

My understanding is that the mutation allows cancer cells to divide even when there are errors in the genome. BRCA 2 is a tumor suppression gene which is part of the homologous recombination repair system of the genome.

cancer.gov/publications/dic...

cancer.gov/publications/dic...

[mrscruffy]

I am BRCA2 positive, been on ADT for 6+ years. It hasn't been bad for me. It also makes you eligible for PAARP inhibitors

[Tall_Allen]

The BRCA2 gene (actually, the protein formed by the gene) is an important part of how our cells prevent random DNA mistakes from becoming cancerous. When there are mutations in that gene (i.e, when one is BRCA2+), it can't fulfill that function, so cancer easily forms.

[Spyder54]

One step further. I have the ATM Gene mutation. These both are DNA Repair genes. ATM resides in the 11th Chromosone. Cancer grows so fast that there are many breaks in the double strand of DNA. This would normally lead to cell death, thereby keeping the Cancer more in check, and slower to spread. These crazy DNA Repair genes go in and repair those double strand breaks thereby allowing the Cancer to grow/spread faster. I know the ATM Gene has several hundred sub variants. Not sure how many subvariants of BRCA 1/2? They have traced these gene mutation clusters to a tribe of 800 Ashkenazi Jewish people from Eastern Europe living 600BC. Not sure how they found DNA back that far, but back then, with little Cancer, and DNA Repair, they were long livers, and able to avoid many health issues. Today, with Ca everywhere, it is a disadvantage. Some subvariants are much less hostile, so all is not lost. I was told Radiation (SABR/SBRT) may not be as effective with the ATM Gene mutation, but now 14 mos out, I have had a good response so far! Mike

[MateoBeach in reply to Spyder54]

Good summary, Mike. Glad you are doing well. Paul

[Spyder54 in reply to MateoBeach]

Thanks Paul, you are a Mentor to me. Hope your J591 combined with BAT are still keeping you in check, along with the elusive high quality of life (QOL). I see Smurtaw (Russ) is no longer on this site He shows as “Hidden” which means he left on his own. Wish he would re-join, as he is a resource of good knowledge

Mike

[Seasid in reply to Spyder54]

I believe that they hacked my phone. I suggest that we all put a longer password on our account otherwise a criminals could use it to put a mallware to our phones. I am writing this with the help of a Tor browser and Proton VPN. I am not an expert, but just in case I am doing this now.