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BREAST CANCER SURVIVORS MAY FACE HIGHER RISK OF GETTING OVARIAN CANCER, UC IRVINE RESEARCHERS FIND
Risks Appear Greatest for Younger Hispanic and Asian Women
Irvine, Calif., March 23, 1999 - Women who survive breast cancer-especially those who were diagnosed before age 50-may face a greater risk of getting ovarian cancer, a team of UC Irvine researchers has found.
The study identifies for the first time specific groups of female survivors of breast cancer with the highest risks of developing ovarian cancer. If women in these high-risk categories become more aware of their susceptibility to subsequent cancer, they can take steps to get early screenings. The research, conducted by Dr. Wendy Brewster and her colleagues at UCI's College of Medicine, was presented today at the Society of Gynecological Oncologists' meeting in San Francisco.
The study found that women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50 had a 30 percent higher risk of getting ovarian cancer than expected in the general population. Women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer between ages 15 and 39 and Hispanic and Asian women under 50 had the greatest risks of subsequent ovarian cancer.
"We hope that this study will help women and their physicians determine whether they are at risk of developing ovarian cancer," Brewster said. "It's important, especially for younger women and those with high-risk ethnic backgrounds, to be aware of their risks and talk to their doctors about getting the necessary screening for cancer."
Brewster and her colleagues evaluated medical data of more than 120,000 women retrieved from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database. The women in the study were between 15 and 80 years old and had been diagnosed with breast cancer sometime between 1980 and 1990.
The researchers found that the risk of subsequent ovarian cancer increased to more than three times the average risk if the women had been diagnosed with breast cancer between the ages of 15 and 39. For Hispanic women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50, the risk was nearly four times higher than expected, and for Asian women under 50 it was nearly three times the expected incidence. African-American women under 50 had double the expected risk of getting ovarian cancer.
Non-Hispanic white women under 50 had an 80 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer, which was the lowest among ethnic groups but was still significantly higher than average.
Women who were diagnosed with breast cancer when they were over 50 did not have a significantly higher risk of getting ovarian cancer.
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in the United States. Last year, about 180,000 new cases were diagnosed and an estimated 13,500 women died from the disease. Heightened public awareness and increased breast cancer screening has resulted in lower death rates and higher rates of new diagnoses. Although ovarian cancer diagnoses were much lower with about 25,400 new cases reported last year, approximately 14,500 women died from the disease.
"We know that there is a link between breast and ovarian cancers because they appear to respond to similar environmental, behavioral and genetic influences, such as early age at menarche, never giving birth to a child and ethnic background," Brewster said. "Breast cancer survivors may be more susceptible than normal to ovarian cancer because of these shared risks. The more we understand about these risks, the more we increase the chances of diagnosing ovarian cancer in its early, more easily treatable stages."
Brewster was assisted in her research by Hoda Anton-Culver, Alberto Manetta, Philip DiSaia, Thomas H. Taylor, Krishnansu Tewari and Argyrios Ziogas. The researchers are from UCI's Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the university's Division of Epidemiology.
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