Women with a family history are encouraged to undergo BRCA1/2 testing for early prevention and detection of ovarian cancer.
Doctors are urging women with a family history to get genetic testing to reduce their risk of breast or ovarian cancer, citing Angelina Jolie as a leading example.
In China, about 70 per cent of women with ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until the terminal stage, when the five-year survival rate is only 30 to 40 per cent.
Doctors say testing for mutation of the genes of BRCA1 and BRCA2 can be a useful measure for early screening, especially among those with a family history. BRCA1/2 are closely related with ovarian cancer and breast cancer.
“The risk of ovarian cancer among the general public is 1 percent, while those with a mutation of BRCA1 have the risk of 40 percent and BRCA2 11 to 18 per cent,”said Dr Wu Xiaohua from the Shanghai Cancer Center, which led the nation’s first BRCA1/2 research on ovarian cancer and found 28.5 per cent of Chinese ovarian cancer patients have the BRCA1/2 mutation.
“Angelina Jolie is the most famous case with a family history of the BRCA gene mutation and underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tube to prevent cancer,” Wu said.
Doctors said women with a family history of ovarian cancer, or who have shown symptoms of ovarian problems or have certain ovarian diseases should receive BRCA1/2 testing for early prevention and detection of ovarian cancer. [APBN]
Source: Shine.cn