Women without the BRCA gene mutation don’t have a heightened risk of breast cancer, even if they have relatives who carry one of the mutations themselves, according to a new study by Stanford University researchers.
The recent findings refute a 2007 study, which stated that such women could have a 2 to 5 times higher risk of developing breast cancer compared with the general population, even if their test for the 2 genetic mutations was negative.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, are based on a study of 3047 families from the United States, Australia, and Canada. The analysis included 160 families with BRCA1 and 132 families with BRCA2. No increased risk was found for the women who were BRCA-negative and also had close relatives with BRCA-related cancer. Instead, their cancer risk is similar to that in women with relatives with non-BRCA–related cancers.
Therefore, the results uphold current guidelines stating that non-BRCA mutation carriers with relatives impacted by the BRCA genes can follow the mammography schedule recommended for the general population. Additionally, preventative surgery is not a necessary consideration for those same non-BRCA mutation carriers.