A current alternative for the management of patients with breast cancer has been the study of the BRCA gene (BRCA 1 and BRCA 2), as a hereditary mutation is present in approximately 5 to 8% of cases. The risk of breast cancer increases significantly in women with BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 mutant. These genetic mutations also influence the onset of ovarian cancer with an association of about 5% of cases, particularly associated with BRCA 1.

The clinical management of these findings must be guided through a detailed medical history in which clearly must include a family history of cancer and age of onset (at least 2 generations including parenting), the development of genetic counseling and implementation of clearly defined protocols, together with appropriate treatment options and the strict surveillance of family members considered as risk group.

For the first time, a team of Canadian researchers have calculated the risk for women who do not have a faulty BRCA gene, but close relatives who have had a cancer of that type.

Women who inherit a faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 have a 80 percent chance of developing breast cancer sometime in her life.

But experts also know that families exist in other genes associated with the disease.

The team from the University of Toronto led by Steven Naron, studied women who had a first degree relative less than fifty years with cancer and three of any age who suffer from the same condition.

Despite not having a defective gene, more than one in three of these women developed breast cancer compared with an average probability of one in nine among the general population.

Although the risk of developing breast cancer among this group of women is not as high as among those who carry the gene (defective) is significant enough for doctors to consider applying appropriate preventive therapies.

It’s the first time it has measured the risk of breast cancer in this group of women, and significantly higher than the general population, so it is important that appropriate measures be considered.

The Canadian study published in the new issue of British Journal of Cancer.

According to Professor Jack Cuzick, an epidemiologist from Cancer Research UK, about 15 percent of British women suffering breast cancer have a family history of disease.