BRCA genes raise breast cancer risk for men too

BRCA genes raise breast cancer risk for men too
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Mutations in the BRCA1 andBRCA2 genes that increase the risk of breast cancer for womenalso do the same in men.
Men can develop breast cancer, although they account foronly about 1 percent of breast cancer cases. Previous studieshave shown that men who carry mutations in the BRCA2 gene areat greater risk of developing breast cancer than men in thegeneral population. Now, new research suggests that the same istrue for men with BRCA1 mutations.
Dr. Sining Chen from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine inBaltimore, Maryland, and colleagues studied data on 1,939families that included 97 male patients with breast cancer.
"At all ages, the cumulative risks of male breast cancerwere higher in both BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers than innoncarriers," the researchers report in the Journal of theNational Cancer Institute.
The likelihood of developing breast cancer was highest formen in their 30s and 40s and decreased with increasing age. Forexample, for BRCA2 mutation carriers, 30-year-old men were 22times more likely to develop breast cancer than carriers at 70years of age.
The risk was higher for BRCA2 than BRCA1 mutation carriers.The investigators calculate that, by age 70, the chances ofdeveloping breast cancer are 1.2 percent for male BRCA1mutation carriers and 6.8 percent for men with the BRCA2mutation.
They point out that these estimates of risk are "importantfor determining appropriate risk management strategies" formale members of families with mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, December5, 2007.