NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In addition to ovarian and breast cancer, families that fulfill criteria for BRCA1/2 mutation testing are at increased risk of early onset pancreatic and stomach cancer, findings indicate. In families with males affected by breast cancer, there is some risk of early prostate cancer as well.
“However, the risks of cancer at sites other than the ovary and the breast are only moderate, and the major concerns in families eligible for BRCA1/2 mutation testing remain breast and ovarian cancer,” Dr. Justo Lorenzo Bermejo told Reuters Health.
Dr. Bermejo and Dr. Kari Hemminki from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg conducted what is believed to be the largest population-based study on the risk of cancer at sites other than the breast in families at high-risk for breast/ovarian cancer due to family history and suspected BRCA1/2 mutations.
A total of 944,723 families in the Swedish Family-Cancer Database with at least three generations were classified according to standard clinical criteria for BRCA1/2 mutation testing. The incidence of cancer in these families was compared with the incidence in the general Swedish population.
In families with two cases of breast cancer occurring before age 50, there is a moderate excess risk of early onset pancreatic, prostate, and ovarian cancer, the investigators report in the November 15th Annals of Oncology.
The data also show an increased incidence of ocular cancer in families with ovarian and breast cancers and increased risks of prostate and primary liver cancer in families with two breast cancer cases, at least one of them occurring before age 50.
Stomach cancer before age 70 was “twice as frequent” in ovarian and breast cancer families as in the general population, Drs. Bermejo and Hemminki report.
Summing up, the researchers say this study confirms “at a population level” the association of BRCA1/2 mutations with ovarian, pancreatic, prostate and stomach cancers.
“However, the clustering of early pancreatic cancer in families with two breast cancers under age 50 years, the aggregation of ovarian cancer in families with breast and ovarian cancers, and the increased incidence of early onset prostate cancer in families with male breast cancer seem to be due to other effects unrelated to BRCA1/2 mutations,” they note.
This is “an important finding,” Dr. Bermejo told Reuters Health, adding that studies are needed to pinpoint the additional factors that account for this residual family aggregation.
Source: Ann Oncol 2004;15:1834-1841. [ Google search on this article ]
MeSH Headings:Biological Sciences: Biology: Genetics: Genetics, Population: Genes, BRCA1: Biological SciencesCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
