Risk-reducing mastectomies (RRM) in women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic variant may significantly reduce the risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer and also lower the probability of death.
The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, examined how RRM affects the rate of death of women with a pathogenic variant but no cancer diagnosis.
Women who have an inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 variant, have an 80 per cent risk of developing breast cancer over the course of their lifetime.
Research has shown that an RRM reduces the risk of breast cancer by 90 percent.“The decision to have a risk reducing mastectomy is often difficult for a woman to make, and the more evidence we are able to provide them with when they are making that decision, the more informed their care plan will be,” said Prof Kelly Metcalfe of the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, from University of Toronto, Canada.
Metcalfe said that in Canada, 30 per cent of women with a pathogenic variant opt for this surgery. It is, Metcalfe said, one of the most effective ways of preventing breast cancer in women with this risk profile.
Through a pseudo-randomised trial, Metcalfe, and her team, followed over 1,600 participants from a registry of women with a pathogenic BRCA 1/2 variant from nine different countries over the course of six years, with half of the women having a risk-reducing mastectomy. Source: IANS