Cancer is defined as the body’s inability to control the rate at which cells divide. When cells divide too quickly, mutations can occur, causing them to lose track of their original purpose in the body and develop tumors. As a result, these tumors may interfere with the body’s natural activities, such as digestion and respiration, potentially resulting in death.

Normally, your body has a number of genetic mechanisms in place to regulate the rate at which your cells divide. BRCA1, which stands for breast cancer susceptibility gene 1, is one of these genes. BRCA1 is part of a group of genes known as tumor suppressor genes. Tumor suppressor genes have a role in controlling how quickly a cell divides.

Cell division is normally controlled by a process known as the cell cycle, which is essentially a cell’s life cycle. A series of checkpoints exist throughout the cell cycle, where proteins like the one generated by BRCA1 regulate how quickly the cell may progress.

BRCA1 is a gene that aids in the repair of certain types of DNA mutations. When your DNA is damaged, BRCA1 prevents your cells from dividing until the mutation is corrected. Every cell in your body has two copies of the BRCA1 gene. You inherited one copy from your mother and the other from your father. This redundancy is beneficial since only one working BRCA1 gene is required to regulate the cell cycle in a cell. It is crucial to remember, however, that while these copies perform the same purpose, they are not identical. BRCA1 has hundreds of different variations, or alleles. Some are better at controlling the cell cycle than others.

In other words, some people have better regulating and healing mechanisms than others. Furthermore, mutations in BRCA1 may render it useless in some circumstances. Cells with damaged DNA are allowed to divide when this happens. These cells may accrue more mutations as they divide. The cell may become less specialised as a result of these alterations, and it may cease to serve its original function in the tissue. If this happens, there is a higher possibility they will turn into cancerous cells.

While we all have the genes that can cause cancer, such as BRCA1, the problems arise when these genes fail to operate properly. Having a defective or inefficient variant of BRCA1 can make you more susceptible to cancer.