Alexandria, VA—Israeli investigators have found that Ashkenazi Jewish women with ovarian cancer who have mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes lived significantly longer than Ashkenazi Jewish ovarian cancer patients without these mutations. After up to nine years of follow-up, BRCA1/2 mutation carriers were 28 percent less likely to die from the disease, even though women with the BRCA mutations are significantly more likely to develop ovarian and breast cancers. The study is being published January 1 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).
