Specific mutated BRCA regions confer different risks of breast, ovarian cancers

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a new study published in JAMA, researchers at the The Basser Center for BRCA, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Abramson Cancer Cancer Center, have found specific BRCA mutations confer higher risks of breast cancer, while other BRCA mutations confer higher risks of ovarian cancer.

For the study, researchers evaluated cancer diagnoses for 19,581 carriers of BRCA1 mutations and 11,900 carriers of BRCA2 mutations. Results showed that women who carry a certain subset of BRCA mutations typically found in the Ashkenazi Jewish population have a 69% risk of breast cancer and a 26% ovarian cancer.

Previous research showed that a woman with a BRCA1 mutations automatically has a 59% risk of breast cancer and a 34% risk of ovarian cancer.

The findings suggest that there are certain regions on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that, when mutated, increase a woman's risk for breast cancer, while other mutated regions increase a woman's risk for ovarian cancer.