Good news for women with breast cancer genes: you may lower your risk of developing the disease despite what your genetic markers exhibit. How and what the odds are were explained by a group of researchers in a new study.
Specifically, the team from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health discovered that about 30 percent of women with breast cancer could prevent the disease by changing known risk factors such as alcohol consumption, weight control and non-intake of hormone replacement therapy. However, the study's more striking finding is that the bigger group of preventable cases would develop among women because of their family history, genetic features and other non-modifiable factors.
"People think that their genetic risk for developing cancer is set in stone," says the study's senior author Dr. Nilanjan Chatterjee. He adds that while people cannot change their genes, their work conveys that even people who have a high risk can do something to improve their health outcomes by choosing better lifestyle habits, such as eating well, engaging in physical activity and refraining from smoking and other unhealthy habits.
Investigating The Impact Of Genes And Individual Factors
The research team developed a model from several institutions across the world to predict breast cancer risk. They did this by studying data from the Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium, which consists of over 17,000 and almost 20,000 women with or without breast cancer, respectively. They also looked into records of about 6,000 women from the 2010 National Health Interview Study.
The scientists combined records on individual risk factors and nearly 100 gene variations, each of which are linked to breast cancer. These genes, when combined with known risk factors, are said to increase the risk of breast cancer.
The results of the study are only applicable to white women, as experts need to explore further the relationship between genetics and breast cancer risks for ethnic communities.
Help In Future Screening Techniques And Treatment
The study findings may help experts develop better preventive methods to aid women who have high genetic risks of developing breast cancer.
The results can be of valuable importance because the price of genetic testing has shown a decreasing trend, making more patients able to afford it now.
The work may also give an insight into the most efficient time and frequency of testings that women should follow. At present, the timing of breast cancer screening is based on age, with the recommended age of mammograms between 40 to 50 years old. However, mammograms, despite being able to detect breast cancer early, may give false-positive results. This may lead to more stress and unwarranted care for patients.
The results of the study may implicate that individual risk factors should be the basis of testing. Being able to come up with a model wherein only the highest-risk patients would be required more thorough screening would be beneficial.
Chatterjee explains that the team does not mean there would be fewer tests, just smarter ones.
Long Way To Go
The team acknowledges that the model they developed still has a long way to go. It could take years for it to be used in the routine clinical setting. For one, it still needs to be verified in other studies. Another thing to consider is the high cost of genetic screening, despite the trend of price seeing a decreasing trend. Lastly, considerations about ethnic communities and specific breast cancer subtypes, which may have different causes and clinical outcomes, must be made.
In the end, Chatterjee hopes that women will realize that even if they are embedded with breast cancer genes, they can still have the power to avoid the disease through lifestyle changes.
While he understands that it is hard to motivate people to be fit and make correct health choices, he hopes the study is able to aid people understand the importance of healthier decisions at a more individualized degree.
The study was published in JAMA Oncology on May 26.
