Breast cancer is the commonest cancer affecting women worldwide. Different studies have dealt with the etiological factors of that cancer aiming to find a way for early diagnosis and satisfactory therapy. The present study clarified the relationship between genetic polymorphisms of BRCA1 & BRCA2 genes and some etiological risk factors among breast cancer patients in Iraq. This investigation was carried out on 25 patients (all were females) who were diagnosed as breast cancer patients attended AL-Kadhemya Teaching Hospital in Baghdad and 10 apparently healthy women were used as a control, all women (patients and control) aged above 40 years. The Wizard Promega kit was used for DNA isolation from breast patients and normal individuals. By this method suitable quantities of DNA approximately (50 µl) with purity ranged from (1.7-1.9) were obtained from 100-200µg of fresh biopsy which had been taken from women breast patients. The extracted DNA was successfully used in amplification of BRCA1 & BRCA2 genes by PCR and some mutation were detected. The outcome of genetic analysis indicated that the percentage of 185delAG mutation was 16 (4 patients) whereas, the percentage of 5382insC mutation was 32 (8patients) in BRCA1 gene and the third mutation 6174delT in BRCA2 present in 3 patients only (12%). The study demonstrated that the frequency of BRCA1 mutation (48%) was higher than BRCA2 (12%) in this sample of Iraqi women with breast cancer.
