SGO 2020: For BRCA-Mutation Carriers, Breast Cancer May Follow Ovarian Cancer
Posted: Monday, April 20, 2020
A retrospective cohort study added to the literature about the incidence of breast cancer diagnosis after epithelial ovarian cancer diagnosis in women with deleterious BRCA mutations. In this analysis, the incidence was 15%, according to Andrea Nañez, MD, of Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, and colleagues. Their findings were made available as part of the virtual platform of the 2020 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer (Abstract 552).
Included were 286 women in a large integrated health-care system who had BRCA mutations and were diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer from 1997 to 2017. They excluded 52 women who had a risk-reducing mastectomy; of the remaining 234 women, 34, or 15%, were subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer. Of the breast cancers, 28 were new, and 6 were recurrences.
The secondary outcomes of included the median time to breast cancer diagnosis after epithelial ovarian cancer and the method of detection. The median time was 8 years, “with most cases being diagnosed within 10 years,” noted Dr. Nañez and colleagues. Further, “most breast cancers following BRCA-associated epithelial ovarian cancer [were] diagnosed on mammogram or [presented] with a palpable lump.” The breast cancer was stage 0, 1, or 2 in 85% of cases.
Another secondary outcome of interest were the risk factors associated with the subsequent development of breast cancer. The median age at epithelial ovarian cancer diagnosis was 53 years. “There were fewer early-stage epithelial ovarian cancers in the group without subsequent breast cancer (16%), compared to the group who did develop breast cancer (38%),” the investigators noted. And in those who were diagnosed with breast cancer, “35% had a family history of breast cancer, and 24% had a family history of ovarian cancer.”
Disclosure: The study authors’ disclosure information can be found sgo.confex.com.
