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Posts with tag BRCA2
Posted Jul 14th 2007 3:30PM by Kristina Collins
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Clinical Trials, Research, Daily news
According to a New England Journal of Medicine article, the answer is no. Women with the breast cancer mutations BRCA1 and BRCA2 seem to have similar survival rates as women without these gene mutations.
A clinical trial was conducted including 1,500 patients. The researchers wanted to see if the patients with gene mutations had worse outcomes then those that did not have the gene mutations.
The researchers found:
- Overall, deaths rates from breast cancer were not significantly different among patients with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations from those without the mutations.
- Among patients who underwent treatment with chemotherapy, death rates from breast cancer were not significantly different between patients with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations from those without the mutations.
Posted Jun 2nd 2007 9:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Research, Daily news
Four more breast cancer genes have been uncovered by a team of international scientists, a discovery that may rival in importance the cloning of the BRCA2 gene in 1995. Scientists say women with mutated versions of these genes have a pretty low risk of contracting breast cancer, though, and it's unlikely that screening tests for such mutations will be developed.
Genetic causes of breast cancer account for 5 to 10 percent of all cases. Lifestyle factors, such as smoking and environmental influences, account for the rest.
Until now, only 25 percent of the genes suspected to cause inherited breast cancer had been identified. The four new genes -- FRFR2, TNRC9, MAP3K1, and LSP1 -- are believed to be fairly common yet account for only four percent of all cases. The genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, in contrast, are not very common but indicate a high risk for disease.
Continue reading Four more breast cancer genes found
Posted Mar 29th 2007 10:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Daily news
I get mammograms every six months. I get ultrasounds every six months. I get a breast MRI every year. That's my typical screening routine, intended to keep breast cancer from invading my life for a second time.
This combination of testing -- primarily the MRI part -- has not been typical for all at-risk women. It's just the plan my doctors have determined is the best insurance policy for me. But as of yesterday, the
American Cancer Society began recommending regular use of MRI scans, rather than conventional mammograms, for women facing a breast cancer risk of 15 percent or more.
Family history places one to two percent of women at a 20 percent higher risk of developing the disease than women without such a history. Women carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA 2 gene mutation face a lifetime risk of up to 65 percent. And women with a personal history of the disease are at risk of a repeat diagnosis. These are the women MRI screening can help.
Recent studies show MRI to be much more sensitive than mammograms. And in an investigation of 969 women diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast, MRI found 30 additional tumors in the opposite breast previously missed by mammograms and physical exams.
Not typically used for routine screenings due to cost and a few false alarms -- sometimes the scans detect suspicious areas that once surgically tested turn out to be benign -- MRI is still the best tool for detecting more cancerous tumors earlier.
There is no proof yet that the cancers detected by MRI will translate into longer lives for patients. Life-extending benefits will become clear only after women are followed for a longer period of time.
Posted Mar 19th 2007 10:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Prevention, Daily news
Simply being female puts all women at risk for breast cancer. That and age, race, family history, personal history, genetic make-up, when they had children, when they reach menopause, and a whole host of other possible factors.
Now U.S. doctors are officially calling body mass index, breast density, and alcohol consumption predictors of the disease, says
Therese Bevers, medical director of the Cancer Prevention Center, at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.Bevers helped write updated guidelines for the prevention of breast cancer and presented them at the 12th annual National Comprehensive Cancer Network in Hollywood, Florida on Friday.
The guidelines, featuring the revised list of risk factors, also offer treatment options for women -- including bilateral mastectomy for women who have tested positive for the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 as well as possible medical treatments with drugs such as tamoxifen and raloxifene.
Posted Oct 20th 2006 9:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Breast Cancer
There are various risk factors that can contribute to the development of breast cancer. Being female is the single biggest risk factor that on its own puts all women in jeopardy. But there are other risks -- many beyond our control and some more significant than others -- that can help explain why some women are diagnosed with the most common cancer in women in the United States. And why others are not.
Continue reading Awareness of breast cancer risk is a must, every month
Posted Oct 17th 2006 10:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Research, Daily news
Researchers have identified a damaged gene -- BRIP1 -- that doubles the risk of familial breast cancer in a small percentage of women. BRIP1 is a DNA repair gene that can lead to uncontrollable cell growth if not functioning properly. Researchers have concluded that the damaged gene increases risk for breast cancer from eight to 16 percent by age 70.
These findings won't change patient care but they may offer comfort to women who develop breast cancer and cannot pinpoint the occurrence to the commonly mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes -- mutations that are responsible for the disease 80 percent of the time. And while the study of BRIP1 does add to the pool of research on breast cancer, it does not warrant screening at this time. It's just a small piece of the puzzle that one day may prove significant. For now, the risk of breast cancer resulting from a damaged BRIP1 gene is modest.
Posted Jul 11th 2006 9:00PM by Dalene Entenmann
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Prevention, Research
This is surprising -- and not good news -- for women. For women who carry one of two specific gene mutations, BRCA1 or BRCA2, linked to an increase in breast and ovarian cancer risk, even if the ovaries and fallopian tubes are surgically removed, they are still at risk for developing a form of
ovarian cancer called peritoneal cancer.
According to Dr. Steven Narod, a leading researcher in the field of inherited breast and ovarian cancers, women with the gene mutations still have a cancer risk nine times higher than women without the inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation.
"Is it bad news? Well, one would like to think you have your organs removed and the disease is not going to come," said Dr. Narod. The average Canadian woman has about a 1.4 percent lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer. The risks for women with the BRCA1 gene mutation is 60 percent and with the BRCA2 gene mutation is 25 percent.
Researchers call the surgical removal of ovaries and fallopian tubes a method of risk-reduction but that it will not completely prevent ovarian cancer. The Hereditary Ovarian Cancer Clinical Study Group have reported the study results in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Posted Jun 23rd 2006 10:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Research, Daily news
It is not yet clear how -- or if -- this will affect American women but a piece of the breast cancer puzzle has been located for Icelandic women.
Scientists reported this week that women with a bad gene that raises their risk of breast cancer were almost certain to develop the disease if they also had a mutation of second gene. This gene -- BARD1 -- seems to add a large risk for these women.
Two genes -- BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- were discovered 10 years ago and account for 10-15 percent of total breast cancer cases. Scientists have been searching for other genes that act alone or with these two genes to raise the risk for breast cancer. BARD1 appears to be one of the genes they were looking for. Women with a BARD1 mutation and also a BRCA2 mutation -- the most common in Iceland -- have a 50 percent increase in risk. In the United States, BRCA1 is most common so the puzzle is not quite the same. So for the 213,000 American cases of breast cancer that will emerge this year -- making it the most common major cancer in women and the second leading cause of deaths in women -- it is uncertain if BARD1 will be significant. But the discovery of this gene will help unravel the mystery of breast cancer -- and that is a step in the right direction for sure.
Posted May 31st 2006 8:22AM by Dalene Entenmann
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Prevention, Pregnancy and cancer, Research
Multiple pregnancies for women who carry the inherited mutations in
BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes appears to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer, according to researchers from the German Cancer Research Center. The International BRCA1/2 Carrier Cohort Study set out to examine if the same breast cancer protective factors of multiple births and breastfeeding provided to women without the genetic mutations extended to women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.
According to the study, women with one child have the same breast cancer risk as childless women. The risk of developing breast cancer after age 40 was lowered by 14 percent with every child. Interestingly, women with a BRCA2 mutation had twice the cancer risk if they had given birth to their first child after age 20 compared to those who had become mothers before age 20. For carriers of BRCA1 mutations, it was the exact opposite. The risk of getting breast cancer was lower in women who had given birth to their first child after age 30. The only thing about research -- it is only correct until the next research study. I only say this because I hear over and over from women who are surprised by a breast cancer diagnosis when they did not have any of the risk factors or they fit the profile of a woman with reduced risk. If you have the inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, the study results are a generalization, and your individual situation might differ. I would not sit here and read into this study that you are going to get breast cancer because you only gave birth to one child -- or that you didn't have children at the optimum age.
Posted May 7th 2006 1:45PM by Dalene Entenmann
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Prevention
For women with the BRCA1 mutation, a specific genetic mutation that puts them at greater risk of developing breast cancer, study results suggest that
drinking caffeinated coffee offers a significant level of breast cancer prevention. In a study funded by the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance and National Cancer Institute, researchers examined the records of 1,690 women who have the genetic mutations BRCA1 or BRCA2 and had the women give answers to a questionnaire about coffee consumption. Women who drank one-to-three cups of caffeinated coffee per day reduced their breast cancer risk by 10 percent; women who drank four-to- five cups of caffeinated coffee reduced their breast cancer risk by 25 percent and women who drank six or more cups of caffeinated coffee per day were 69 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than women who drank no coffee. Good news for all of us who jumpstart our morning with a jolt of java.
Posted Mar 23rd 2006 12:00PM by Dalene Entenmann
Filed under: Breast Cancer
University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada researchers completed a
study
that concludes radiation exposure during mammography tests does not increase the risk of breast cancer in women with
BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, even when screening begins at an early age.
Radiation exposure can damage
DNA. BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations can prevent DNA from repairing the damage. So, it was feared that any
additional radiation exposure to women who carry the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation were being put in harm's way by
having mammograms. The researchers say it isn't so. However, even though the study conclusions report no heightened
cancer risk for women with the BRCA gene mutations and mammograms, research into this will continue, to confirm the
initial findings of this study.
Posted Mar 22nd 2006 7:10PM by Dalene Entenmann
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Drug, Prevention
In 2004, the COSMIC database was developed at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK, to provide the latest in genetic
data to scientific communities. To date, data in COSMIC has expanded to include data on 538 genes, 124,367 tumors with
23,157 mutations. In centralizing and building on the information from various research communities, the COSMIC
database can speed the progress of research in helping genetic scientists identify, and understand, the role of mutated
genes to cancer.
In the case of breast cancer diagnosis, researchers have identified that 20 percent of
breast cancer is influenced by the inherited risks of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. But 80 percent are still without a genetic
explanation.
According to
missing breast cancer genes may
soon be discovered, published in Physorg.com, "This could explain why some smokers get lung cancer and some
don't - there must be a combination of faulty genes and harmful exposure to tobacco smoke to activate the cancer
cells." The COSMIC database may allow scientists to unravel the genetic mysteries in the development of cancer, in
why some people are diagnosed with cancer and others living the same lifestyle are not, and why cancer treatments work
for some people, while failing others.
Posted Mar 22nd 2006 11:30AM by Dalene Entenmann
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Prevention
According to University of Washington
researchers,
genetic testing
for breast cancer and ovarian cancer is not a perfect science. Between 2002 and 2005, 300 breast cancer patients,
who were at higher risk of cancer due to inherited genetic mutations of the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, were evaluated.
The researchers used multiple screening tests to identify mutations not only in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, but also
other inherited mutations in other genes that may predict breast cancer, such as CHEK2, TP53 and PTEN.
Of
the women in the study, 17 percent of the patients carried mutations that went undetected, and 12 percent of them had
BRCA1or BRCA2 genes that the standard tests missed. The failure of the standard tests was higher with women who were
under 40 years of age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis.
In the U.S., 10 percent of women diagnosed
with breast cancer have the BRCA genes. The researchers stated that the lifetime risk of breast cancer is as high as 80
percent for women who have mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA 2 genes. The risk of ovarian cancer is 40 percent or higher for
women who have a BRCA 1 mutation, and 20 percent or higher for women who have the BRCA 2 mutation.
Posted Feb 10th 2006 12:46PM by Dalene Entenmann
Filed under: Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Prevention
By now, most of us know vegetables are good for our
health.
Georgetown University Medical Center researchers
have found one more reason why you should eat vegetables. Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, loaded with
indole-3-carinol, and soybeans, with genistein, can repair damaged DNA by increasing the levels of
BRCA1 and
BRCA2
proteins. Researchers exposed breast and prostate cancer cells to indole-3-carinol and genistein, and discovered these
compounds enhanced the production of BRCA1 and BRCA2, responsible in the repair of damaged DNA. This is one of the
first studies to provide a molecular explanation and another point of reference in the positive argument for
influencing the reduction of risk in developing cancer with dietary choices.
Here's an interesting story: Women in the Canadian province of Quebec are less likely than women elsewhere to take preventative action after learning that they have a certain gene linked to breast and ovarian cancers. Women who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations have a higher risk of developing cancer, prompting many women to either have their breast or ovaries removed. Two thirds of women in Quebec took no preventative actions after learning of their risk, while only one third failed to take preventative steps in the rest of the country. 
