Largest-ever cancer risk study completed
Monday, November 15, 2004
LUGANO, Switzerland, Nov 15, 2004
(United Press International via COMTEX)–Swiss researchers have completed the largest-ever risk study into probabilities of genetic predisposition to pancreatic, ovarian and breast cancers.
Dr. Justo Lorenzo Bermejo and Professor Kari Hemminki used the 2002 Swedish Family-Cancer Database, which contains everyone born in Sweden after 1931 with their biological parents — some 10.2 million people.
They found in families with bilateral breast cancer, or two breast cancers before age 50, there is concern about early onset pancreatic cancer. Prostate cancers are also more common in such families although the risk is only moderate.
Most cases of ovarian cancer in families with male breast cancer and bilateral breast cancer are probably attributable to mutations known as BRCA1 and BRCA2.
The study was published Monday in Annals of Oncology, the journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology