A benefit from ovary removal.

Women who face a high risk of breast cancer because they harbor a mutation in the BRCA1 gene may be able to lessen that threat by having their ovaries removed, a new study shows.

Among women with the mutation, researchers found that over 8 years, breast cancer appeared in 30 of 79 women (38 percent) with intact ovaries. In contrast, over 10 years, breast cancer appeared in only 10 of 43 women (23 percent) who had had ovarian surgery before the study began. Average age in the two groups was 35 years and 39 years, respectively. The researchers report their findings in the Sept. 1 JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE.

Over a lifetime, women carrying the BRCA1 mutation face an 80 percent chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer. Ovary removal drastically reduces production of estrogen, a culprit in breast cancer, so the surgery may reduce the threat to these vulnerable women, says study coauthor Timothy R. Rebbeck of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Comparing women whose ovaries had been removed, Rebbeck says that those who took hormone-replacement drugs had no more breast cancer than those who didn't.