Cancer Risk High, But Lower Than Expected With Breast Cancer Genes

Extract

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health have just completed the largest study to date involving direct testing for cancer-susceptibility genes in a general population. The results, published in the May 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, show Ihat three specific ailerations in the breast cancer genes BRCA1and BRCA2 carry an increased risk of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers, but at levels lower than previously thought.

Until now, BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene a!leralions have been studied primarily in families with a high incidence of breast and ovarian cancer throughout several generations. In Ihis study, which look place in the Washington, D.C., Jewish community, 75% Dr. Richard D. Klausner of the volunteers had neither a personal nor a close family history of breast cancer, and 30% were men. The results showed that the average risk of breast and ovarian cancer associated with these three alterations is considerably less than previously thought. The study also provides the most convincing evidence thus far that men carrying the mutations have an elevated risk of prostate cancer.