BRCA1 and BRCA2 Genes & Risk for Ovarian or Breast Cancer
Do you have a personal or family history of breast cancer? If so, you have a higher-than-average risk for ovarian cancer.
All cancers are genetic in the sense that they result from genes that go awry. But only a small number of cancers are hereditary. Inherited cancers are due to a genetic mutation passed on from either or both parents.
About 7 to 10% of all ovarian and breast cancers are due to an inherited gene mutation. The genes responsible for most hereditary breast and ovarian cases are called BRCA1 and BRCA2. People who inherit either or both genes have an increased risk for both of these cancers.
All men and women have BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. But in some people these genes develop an error in the DNA which is known as mutation. These changes may be passed down from generation to generation. That’s been the case for some well defined populations, such as Jews with Askenazi, or Eastern European, backgrounds. In this group, mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 occurred many many generations ago. Now, the genes have been widely dispersed throughout the global populations. However, those defined populations have a higher number of people who carry the BRCA gene mutations.