X-ray doesn’t raise cancer risk in BRCA carriers
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Exposure to the among of radiation produced by mammography does not substantially increase the risk of breast cancer in women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, even when screening begins at an early age, investigators report in The Lancet Oncology, published online on March 22.
Because BRCA mutations disrupt the repair of DNA damage, it was feared that DNA-damaging radiation from mammography would increase these patients’ risk.
Dr. Steven A. Narod, from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues in North America, Europe and Israel conducted a study with 1,600 patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 1952 and 2005, and another 1,600 women with the same age, BRCA mutation status and country of residence. There was no difference in the family histories of women in either group.
Before the calendar year in which the breast cancer patients were diagnosed, 41 percent of women with cancer and 46 percent of the comparison groups had at least one screening mammogram.
The two groups were similar in age at their first mammography (average age 35.3 years for breast cancer patients cases and 35.5 years for the comparison group). Thirteen percent of women with breast cancer had their first mammogram before 30 years of age versus 15 percent in the comparison group.
Narod and his team conclude that there is no association between screening mammography and risk of breast cancer in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. However, more “studies are needed to confirm the results of this initial report,” they write, “and where possible, these studies should assess a more appropriate endpoint of total exposure.”
SOURCE: The Lancet Oncology, March 22, 2006.
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