Even after having their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed on a preventive basis, women who carry one of two gene mutations known to be linked to high rates of breast and ovarian cancer are still at risk of developing a form of ovarian cancer, cancer in the peritoneum, a large international study released Tuesday confirms.

About four per cent of women who had the preventive procedure, called a salpingo-oophorectomy, went on to develop peritoneal cancer within 10 years of the operation, the researchers, from the Hereditary Ovarian Cancer Clinical Study Group, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Senior author Dr. Steven Narod, a leading researcher in the field of inherited breast and ovarian cancers, said that means that even after having their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed women with the mutations - known as BRCA1 or BRCA2 - still face a risk of developing peritoneal cancer that is significantly higher than that faced by women who didn't inherit either of the genes.



Posted by: Jessica    Source

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