Color array reveals breast cancer types

Breast cancer is not a single disease. Some types grow slowly; others, rapidly. Some are due to inherited mutations; others, external factors. But figuring out which type of cancer that patients have, so physicians can treat them most effectively, is difficult.

Now researchers may have found a simple way to identify two inherited forms of the disease, by literally illuminating the genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, “turned on” in these cancers.