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Article: Study: Mastectomy reduces risk to zero for some; Option: Women who have several risk factors can lower the chance of getting breast cancer
- Article from:
- Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
- Article date:
- November 8, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque). Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Surgically removing both breasts before disease
strikes lowers the risk of breast cancer to almost zero for a rare
group of women who have a combination of gene mutations and family
members with the disease, a study found.
The study which appeared Wednesday in the Journal of the National
Cancer Institute, involved women who had close female relatives with
breast cancer and who had a mutation in one of two genes, BRCA1 or
BRCA2, that have been linked to breast cancer.
Researchers said that the average woman has about a 10 percent
lifetime risk of breast cancer. For the women in the study, the
lifetime risk was 55 percent to 85 percent.