Pathogenic germline mutations occurring in the BRCA1 (MIM:113705) and BRCA2 (MIM: 600185), which always result in truncated protein or nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, have been identified to increase the risk of hereditary breast, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, and melanoma cancers. Recent studies show that BRCA1/2 germline mutations also contribute to half of all hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC).

In this case series, we reported a novel frameshift mutation of the BRCA1 gene. This novel frameshift mutation occurs in exon10 of BRCA1 and may result in a lack of the serine cluster domain and BRCA1 C-terminus domain, which mediates the function of BRCA1 in DNA repair and are responsible for activation function of BRCA1. The mutation was present in a Chinese hereditary male/female breast and ovarian cancer family characterized by a high incidence of breast cancer and/or ovarian cancer among the relatives and by a high incidence of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Our findings speculate that BRCA1 E1148Rfs*7 mutation may be related to the occurrence of HBOC and even TNBC. Interestingly, three cases of TNBC with this novel BRCA1 mutation in this case series showed a good disease-free survival, one of them has a disease-free survival up to 7 years. Therefore, further study is required to confirm that whether this mutation is associated with good prognosis of HBOC.