Breast Cancer Risk Weighs Heavily On Your Family HIstory

Washington (dbTechno) - According to a new study led by Dr. Steven Narod of the University of Toronto, a family history of breast cancer weighs heavily on the chances of a woman developing the disease.

Researchers found that women who tested negative for two genetic mutations linked to breast cancer, but who also had a family history of the disease were still very likely to develop it.

For the study, they looked at a total of 1,492 Canadian women with an average age of 48 at the start of the study.

The women did not have mutations in either of the two genes commonly tied to breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2.

The women were found to still be four times more likely to develop breast cancer than the average woman, even with the negative tests coming back.

Overall, women with a family history of the disease had a risk of 40% in regards to their chances of developing the disease.

The women with a history of breast cancer had two or more cases of breast cancer from their close relatives under 50.

The study was presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.