Study: Family History Can Help Identify Women at Higher Breast Cancer Risk

A detailed family-history can help identify women with gene mutations that increase the risk of breast cancer, according to a study reported in the March 29 issue of the Lancet.

Women who carry mutations of BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 genes have up to an 80 percent higher lifetime risk of breast cancer. A family history of breast cancer can be an indication that women carry these genetic mutations, according to researchers at St. Mary's Hospital in Manchester, England.

The researchers assessed BRCA1/BRCA2 status and detailed family history for young English women aged 30 years or younger. About a third of the women assessed had a strong family history of breast cancer and/or ovarian cancer. Forty-four percent of the women with a family history had mutations of BRCA1 or BRCA2 compared with only 6 percent of women without a family history of breast cancer.

Study author Dr. Fiona Lalloo said the findings underline the importance of knowing the family histories of young women diagnosed with breast cancer for the prediction of mutations in genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2.

"We recommend that all breast-cancer surgical notes include a section on family history, which has to be completed," Lalloo said.

Other sources: Lancet