BRCA1 and 2, and the Reduction of Risk

Women who carry BRCA1 or 2 mutations and who had mastectomies or salpingo-oophorectomies were found to have a decreased risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer, researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers, led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Timothy Rebbeck followed 2,482 women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, some of whom then had mastectomies or salpingo-oophorectomies. During the three years of follow-up, none of the women who had mastectomies developed breast cancer in contrast to seven percent of the women who did not have the surgery that did. In addition, three percent of the women who did not have a salpingo-oophorectomy were diagnosed with ovarian cancer while none of the women who underwent surgery were. "The reason we recommend testing is because there's something we can do about it," says Virginia Kaklamani, a co-author of an editorial accompanying the article, to the Wall Street Journal Health Blog.