X-Linked FoxP3 Gene a Tumor Suppressor in Breast Cancer

Interesting new twist on the biology of the FoxP3 gene, a forkhead-family transcription factor you may know as the master switch that defines the T-reg (suppressor T cell) blood cell lineage. Female mice carrying a single copy of the scurfin mutation in FoxP3 had a propensity to develop mammary tumors, apparently due to effects on the infamous breast cancer oncogene HER-2/ErbB2. A role in tumorigenesis for FoxP3's effects on Treg activity was ruled out. The report appears in Cell.