Women with BRCA gene mutations may not only be at increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer, but also for uterine cancer, the Associated Press reports.
At a the Society of Gynecologic Oncology annual meeting, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's Noah Kauff said that in a study of almost 300 women with BRCA1 gene mutations, he and his colleagues identified four women with aggressive uterine cancers after they've had surgery to remove their ovaries. This rate of uterine cancer, the AP says, is some 26 times higher than expected.
Kauff adds that uterine cancer is usually low risk and treated with surgery, making the higher rate of aggressive cancer in women with BRCA1 mutations worrisome.
"It's important for women to have that information ... but I think it's too early to strongly recommend to patients that they undergo a hysterectomy," Karen Lu from MD Anderson Cancer Center tells the AP. She says that more work needs to be done to confirm the findings.