Oophorectomy ‘reduces risk of breast cancer’ in women with BRCA mutations
The effect is strongest in the five years postsurgery, Canadian investigators report
In women with pathogenic variants of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy to help avoid ovarian cancer also appears to reduce breast-cancer risk, researchers say.
Canadian investigators studied registry data on 876 families of which 498 families (2650 individuals) carried an inherited pathogenic variant in BRCA1 and 88% of probands were Caucasian.
The remaining 378 families (1925 individuals) had an inherited pathogenic variant in BRCA2 and 79% of probands were white.
The proportion of family members who undertook salpingo-oophorectomy to reduce ovarian cancer risk was 6.3% in BRCA1 families and 7.5% in BRCA2 families.
