PHG Foundation | Women without BRCA mutations have normal cancer risk

Women without BRCA mutations have normal cancer risk

Report of a story in the news   |   By Rebecca Bazeley   |   Published 11 November 2011

Source: Reuters

Findings suggesting that simply having a close relative with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation raises a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer (see previous news) have been contradicted by a new study.

This more recent research analyses data from 3,000 women in Canada, the US and Australia. The research team found that even where a woman is from a family identified as high-risk due to the presence of inherited BRCA1/2 mutations, if she does not carry one of these mutations then she is at no greater risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer than a woman in the general population.

Our view:

Comment: These apparently contradictory results highlight the difficulty of drawing general conclusions from isolated research projects, however well conducted. The new study involves around twice as many women as the earlier UK based one, which lends weight to their conclusions, but the most reliable results would require a meta-analysis of data from a number of different studies

PHG Foundation Women without BRCA mutations have normal cancer risk