The prevalence of pathogenic variants in cancer susceptibility genes may be high enough to warrant testing in women who develop breast cancer after menopause, US researchers say.

Using data from the Women’s Health Initiative, Stanford University, California, researchers determined the prevalence of pathogenic variants among 2195 women diagnosed with breast cancer after menopause, relative to the background prevalence among 2322 postmenopausal women without cancer who acted as controls.

The prevalence of breast cancer-associated pathogenic variants was almost threefold higher in cases than controls (3.6% vs 1.3%), the authors reported in JAMA.

Among women with BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants, 31% of cases and 20% of controls met US testing guidelines.