Brest Cancer
Cancer
Risk and Abnormal Breast Cancer Genes
The
average woman (without an inherited breast cancer gene abnormality)
in the United States has about a 12% risk of developing
breast cancer over a 90-year life span.
In
contrast, women who have an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene
have up to an 85% risk of developing breast cancer by age
70.
Women
with BRCA1 and BRCA2 abnormalities are also at increased
risk of developing ovarian cancer. The lifetime risk is
about 55% for women with BRCA1 mutations and about 25% for
women with BRCA2 mutations.
By
comparison, about 1.8% of women without an inherited BRCA
abnormality get ovarian cancer. The risk for certain other
cancers may also be higher with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.
But these risk increases (for cancers such skin or digestive
tract) are much lower than the increases in risk for breast
and ovarian cancer.
Yet
despite the increased risk, it's important to remember that
not every person with an inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 abnormality
develops cancer. The risks associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2
mutations may be affected by:
* lifestyle and environmental factors,
* how well other genes work with BRCA1 and BRCA2 to protect
the body against cancer, and
* the particular abnormality in BRCA1 or BRCA2 and how it
affects the proteins that are supposed to suppress cancer.
Also,
many people mistakenly believe that the cancers caused by
inherited genetic abnormalities are more aggressive than
other cancers. In fact, recent evidence suggests that a
woman with an abnormal gene who develops breast or ovarian
cancer may have a LESS aggressive form of the disease than
women without an abnormal gene.
Abnormal
BRCA genes and men's cancer risk
Men
who inherit the abnormal BRCA2 gene have an increased risk
for male breast cancer. This risk is approximately 6% to
7% over a man's lifetime. That's about 80 times greater
than the lifetime risk of men without a BRCA2 abnormality.
Men
with an abnormal BRCA1 gene do NOT have an increased risk
for breast cancer. But they can pass on the BRCA1 mutation
to their daughters, increasing the daughters' risk for the
disease.
Men
with an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene may also be three to
seven times more likely than men without the abnormality
to develop prostate cancer. Other cancer risks, such as
cancer of the skin or digestive tract, may also be somewhat
higher among men with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. But, as
with women, the risk increases for these cancers are much
lower than the increase in risk for breast cancer.
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The information on this page has been extracted from http://www.breastcancer.org/genetics_cancer_risk.html.
