Recent research indicates that those women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and are carriers of a specific genetic mutation could possibly avoid mastectomy. However, they should think of getting hormonal treatments which would help in reducing the risk of their cancer relapsing. It seems that those women who had the specific genetic mutation and whose ovaries had been removed or further, who were treated with the anti-estrogen drug tamoxifen, had far lower rates of breast cancer returning. The mutation on the BRCA1 / BRCA2 gene has a greater risk of breast cancer than women who don’t have the gene mutation. If they are diagnosed as having breast cancer, they stand a greater risk of a second tumor. Due to this, it is contentious whether such women ought to undergo breast-conserving surgery as an alternative to mastectomy.
A hundred and sixty women with early breast cancer and the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations were treated through lumpectomy which is a surgery that removes the tumor, followed up by radiation therapy. These women were examined in comparison with 445 similar women also treated for breast cancer but who did not have the genetic mutations. Interestingly, post 15 years, both the groups were found to have similar rates of tumor recurrence in the same breast. However, among the women having the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, those who had their ovaries removed were seen as having fewer chances of a recurrence. In a similar fashion, the drug tamoxifen drastically reduced the risk of same-breast recurrence for those who carried the mutation by 58 %.
Women with the genetic mutations had a significantly greater risk of developing breast cancer in the opposite breast than did the control group. After 15 years, 45 percent of the women with the mutation who had not undergone oopherectomy developed a second breast cancer in the other breast, compared to only 9 percent of those women without the genetic mutation. It was also seen that those women who carried the mutation and who took the drug tamoxifen had a 69 percent reduction in breast cancer in the opposite breast. Among the women whose ovaries were not removed, taking tamoxifen had led to there being an important difference: 6 % of those who took tamoxifen had a second tumor in the opposite breast at the end of 15 years as opposed to a whopping 54 % of the women who didn’t take the drug. It seems that for those women who have early stage breast cancer and who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, removal of the ovaries or the taking of the drug tamoxifen in women who needed breast conservation along with radiation therapy helps in a great way. It drastically reduces the risk of metastases and primary cancers in the treated breast.
