By Amy Norton HealthDay reporter Latest news Cancer Thursday, 26 May 2016 (HealthDay News) - Women who carry the common genetic varian...
By Amy Norton HealthDay reporter
Latest news Cancer
Thursday, 26 May 2016 (HealthDay News) - Women who carry the common genetic variants associated with breast cancer still reduce the risk of disease to a healthy lifestyle, a large new study.
In fact, the way of life to be especially useful for women with relatively high genetic risk of breast cancer, the researchers found.
"In these genetic risks are not written in stone," lead researcher Nilanjan Chatterjee said Professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
The study found that four lifestyle factors were key: Maintain a healthy weight; do not smoke; Limiting alcohol; and using hormone therapy not after menopause.
Researchers estimate that if all the white American women have done this, almost 30 percent of cases could be avoided by breast cancer. And most cancers would be avoided in women at increased risk because of family history, and variants of genes they carry.
The study did not include women with BRCA gene mutations that greatly increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
Instead, it focuses on 92 genetic variants that would make individually only a small difference in the risk of breast cancer of a woman.
However, variants are much more common than BRCA mutations, Chatterjee said. And its effect has been added to the risk of breast cancer, he said.
One problem that has been the importance of lifestyle for women?
The answer: "The way of life can be used for a genetic low risk with high genetic risk even more important for women," he said.
The results were published online May 26 in the journal JAMA Oncology. The results are based on the records of more than 40,000 women for 24 genetic variants previously tested in relation to risk of breast cancer.
Chatterjee's team has created a "model" for predicting the risk of breast cancer of a woman with this genetic information, and other factors. These other factors, including those that can not be changed - such as a family history of breast cancer and the age of menstruation began - with the lifestyle.
The researchers then added another element to the mix: the impact of 68 different genetic variations that women are for not tested, estimated.
Overall, the study suggests the average white 30 year old woman who has a chance of developing breast cancer at age 80 and 11 percent.
Some women are very likely to ask for their genes and other factors that can not change. But the lifestyle was really the biggest difference for them to make, Chatterjee said.
Also, women with the highest risk (10 percent) could get their chances of breast cancer at an average of maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking and drinking, and not hormone therapy, study suggests.
"The bottom line, this study shows that at the level of the population, a number of breast cancer cases could be prevented if women have done these things," said William Smith, a professor at the School of Vanderbilt Medical University in Nashville, Tennessee.
He added a word of caution in hormone replacement, however. Everything indicates that a brief period of hormones menopause has little effect on the risk of breast cancer.
"I do not think women should take this as they have to go" cold turkey "after menopause," Smith, the published co-authored an editorial with the study.
Dupont also stressed that the researchers, the model has created its limits. Therefore, it should not "predict" the risk of breast cancer for women to be used either.
Of course, apart from the small number of patients tested for BRCA mutations, most women do not know if they are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer carry genes.
But could in future, Chatterjee said. As the cost of sets of genetic testing, he said, is possible, women are analyzed to identify common variants that affect the risk of breast cancer.
Dupont agreed. This information, he said, doctors could help women to give more individual advice on breast cancer screening, for example.
Dupont, but also refers to complex diseases such as breast cancer. Most of the "Join" genes influence the risk - and, as the study shows, only part of the picture are.
For now, he and Chatterjee stressed the importance of a healthy diet, exercise and not smoking - for every taste.
Although more research is needed, the results under non-white women to confirm Chatterjee said the same general trends will most likely apply to them also.
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SOURCES Nilanjan Chatterjee, Ph.D., Professor, Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore; William Dupont, Ph.D., Professor of Biostatistics and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.; May 26, 2016, JAMA Oncology, online
