Toronto – Women with genetic mutations linked to high cancer rates can cut their risk of developing tumors in their ovaries and fallopian tubes by 80 percent by having those organs removed, researchers said.
Women with a mutation in either of a pair of genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2 have as much as a 50 percent lifetime risk of getting ovarian or fallopian-tube cancer, as well as a higher risk of breast cancer.
For that reason, a panel of cancer experts recommends that these women consider having their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.
Researchers followed women with the mutations to see what happened to those who chose the surgery and those who didn’t.
Having the surgery saved lives, the study found, with only 4 percent of women who had the operation developing cancer.
“The surgery reduces the risk by 80 percent, which is a big chunk,” said lead author Steven Narod, a researcher at Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Center in Canada. “It’s a good operation, and it should be done. But there is a residual risk, and we have to find other nonsurgical ways of dealing with it.”
The study will be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The research followed 1,800 women with one or both genetic mutations at 32 centers in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Israel for an average of 3 1/2 years.
During that time, 1 percent of the women with intact ovaries developed cancer each year, as did 0.2 percent of the women who had the surgery.
Narod said 11 women had their cancers diagnosed when they came in to have what they thought would be preventive surgery to remove their ovaries. Many of them were over the age of 35, when Narod and some other experts suggest women who carry the defective genes get the surgery.
“We believe we could have prevented a big chunk of those if women were assiduous” about having their ovaries removed at age 35, Narod said. “Ideally, women would know their genetic status and get the surgery at 35.”
Susan Love, a breast-cancer researcher and author of “Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book” said one- size-fits-all recommendations aren’t helpful for many women, especially young women who don’t want to give up the possibility of having children by having their ovaries removed.
