Fibroblasts from relatives of patients with hereditary breast cancer show fetal-like behaviour in vitro.

Fetal and normal adult skin fibroblasts show distinctive migratory behaviour when plated on three-dimensional collagen gels. Skin fibroblasts from 13 of 15 patients with hereditary breast cancer showed fetal-like behaviour compared with only 1 of 12 age-matched healthy controls (p less than 0.015; Wilcoxon signed-rank matched-pairs test). In addition, 10 of 15 first-degree relatives of patients with hereditary breast cancer showed a fetal-like fibroblast phenotype, compared with none of 7 surgical controls (p less than 0.009; chi 2 test). These results suggest that abnormalities expressed by skin fibroblasts may help identify people at increased risk of breast cancer developing.