Breakthrough: The Quest to Isolate the Gene for Hereditary Breast Cancer

Abstract

Kevin Davies, Michael White Macmillan, £16.99, pp 370 ISBN 0 333 61102 0 Breakthrough chronicles the study of hereditary aspects of breast cancer from the early recognition of its familial clustering to the cloning of the BRCA1 (breast cancer number 1) gene in 1994. It is written by Kevin Davies, the editor of Nature Genetics, where some of the science was published, and Michael White, a science writer and journalist. I was recently asked as part of a fundraising effort to describe some items of equipment in terms “simple and emotive.” The authors have used this principle in writing Breakthrough. They have admirably simplified some very complex concepts to the point where they should be mostly clear to readers without …