SEATTLE, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- The prevalence of mutations in breast-cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 differs in women of different ethic groups and races, says a U.S. study.
The population-based, multicenter study was led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash. The researchers studied more than 2,300 African-American and Caucasian women with and without breast cancer from five U.S. metropolitan areas and found that among breast-cancer cases overall, 2.4 percent and 2.3 percent carried mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, respectively.
BRCA1 mutations were significantly more common in white, at 2.9 percent, versus black, at 1.4 percent, cases. The mutation showed in 10.2 percent of Jewish cases versus 2 percent of non-Jewish cases.
BRCA2 mutations were slightly more common in black, at 2.6 percent, versus white, at 2.1 percent, cases, according to the study published in Cancer Research.
The strongest and most significant predictors of carrying a BRCA1 mutation were diagnosis before age 45 in the case of the sufferer or in a relative, ovarian cancer in a relative and Jewish ancestry. Predictors of BRCA2 mutation status included early age at diagnosis in the case herself or in her relatives.
