Women who test negative for their family’s BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations have no significant increased risk of breast cancer, a new study has concluded.
The results support most previous evidence, but run counter to a 2007 study, which suggested non-carriers were several times more likely to develop breast cancer compared with the general population, warranting increased screening and preventive measures.
The Stanford University researchers used population-based registries in Australia, Canada and California to identify more than 3,000 families in which a woman had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
These women and their first-degree female relatives were tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, with 292 families testing positive overall.
The researchers found no evidence of increased breast cancer risk for non-carriers in these families...
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