Abstract
Over the last few years, evidence has been accumulated that several susceptibility genes exist that differentially impact on the lifetime risk for breast or ovarian cancer. High-to-moderate penetrance alleles have been identified in genes involved in DNA double-strand break signaling and repair, and many low-penetrance susceptibility loci have been identified through genome-wide association studies. In this review, we briefly summarize present knowledge about breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes and discuss their implications for risk prediction and therapy.