New research suggests removing the ovaries of women diagnosed with breast cancer and carrying a BRCA1 gene mutation was associated in 62 percent reduced risk of cancer mortality.
Women who carry certain mutations in either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene are believed to have as much as a 70 percent higher risk of breast cancer than those who do not, the JAMA Network Journals reported. Once diagnosed with breast cancer, these individuals also have higher risk of developing secondary breast or ovarian cancers.
To make their findings and confirm what has been observed in past studies, a team of researchers looked at 676 women, 345 of which had underwent oophorectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer while the other 331 did not. The data showed the 20-year survival rate for the entire group was 77.4 percent, but there was a 56 percent reduction in breast cancer death associated with oophorectomy (the removal of ovaries).
Ovary removal was associated with a 62 percent reduction in breast cancer death in women with a BRCA1 mutation, but not those with a BRCA2 mutation. Oophorectomies were associated with an over 65 percent reduction in all-cause mortality. Over the course of the study there were nine cancer-related deaths in the women who did not receive an oophorectomy.
"It is important that follow-up studies be performed on women who undergo oophorectomy as part of their initial treatment, in particular, those women who undergo oophorectomy in the first year after diagnosis. It is also important that our observations be confirmed in other study populations. Further data are needed, in particular for BRCA2 carriers in order to confirm the benefit of oophorectomy in this population," the article concluded.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the JAMA Network Journals.
