RESEARCH REPORT - Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

what are austraLasian woMen at hiGh risk for Breast CanCer DoinG to reDuCe
their risk?
The main point of testing for breast cancer predisposition genes is to try to reduce morbidity and mortality from cancer. There are now several proven ways
in which women with mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 can substantially reduce their cancer risk. We have been interested in the uptake of these strategies in
Australasian women at high risk for breast cancer, as reflected in the kConFab Follow-Up Study. We have found that:
• Only 50% of female mutation carriers with no personal history of cancer have elected to receive their BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation result.
• Most mutation carriers with no personal history of cancer are relying on cancer screening rather than proven prevention strategies such as risk-reducing surgery
or chemoprevention.
• Reassuringly the vast majority of high risk women are not using unproven complementary and alternative medicine to try to reduce their risk of cancer.
Figure 1: Proportions of female BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers in the kConFab cohort who undertake
proven prevention strategies within three years of learning their mutation result.
presentation highlights
Assoc. Professor Kelly-Anne Phillips
– Familial Cancer 2007 Research and Practice
Meeting, Couran Cove August 2007 (Invited
Speaker and Poster)
prizes anD awarDs
Assoc. Professor Kelly-Anne Phillips
– Familial Cancer 2007 Research and Practice
Meeting 2nd prize poster award.
grants anD funDing
National Health and Medical Research Council
(NHMRC): Project Grant, $698,575, ‘kConFab
Follow-Up Project: a prospective study of nongenetic
risk modifiers in women at high risk for
breast cancer’, 2007–2009.
publications anD patents
Publications are listed at the end of the report and
5, 44, 76, 85, 102, 183, 188, 217, 244.
include references
Lucy Burnham, Prue Weideman and Joanne McKinley
Figure 1: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in high-risk women six years
after entering the kConFab study.
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