2024-03-18 08:30:39
A recent study examined the extent to which MRI surveillance reduces mortality in women at high risk for BRCA1 breast cancer as an alternative to preventive mastectomy.
The study is the work of an international team led by Jan Lubinski of the International Hereditary Cancer Center at the Medical University of Pomerania, Poland. Researchers from the Clinical Oncology group at the Sant Pau Research Institute in Barcelona, led by Dr. Teresa Ramon y Cajal, also participated in the study.
The results of the study indicate that MRI monitoring in women with mutations in the BRCA1 genes who have a high risk of suffering from breast cancer throughout their life, significantly reduces mortality without the need to perform a preventive mastectomy.
The study analyzes data from women with pathogenic variants of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes and demonstrates that those with BRCA1 sequence variations undergoing MRI follow-up have a markedly lower breast cancer mortality rate. These results highlight the importance of early detection strategies, especially in women with a high genetic risk, and open the door to the need to evaluate the impact of this type of surveillance in women with variations of the BRCA2 gene.
Members of the team that carried out the study, belonging to the Sant Pau Research Institute. (Photo: Karla Islas Pieck / Sant Pau Research Institute)
The research includes patient data from 59 different centers in 11 countries, among which Sant Pau stands out as the only center in all of Spain. 2,488 women were included with a mean age at entry of 41.2 years. Of these, 1,756 (70.6%) underwent at least one MRI test as part of the surveillance program, while 732 (29.4%) did not have any MRI tests. After a mean follow-up of 9.2 years, 344 women (13.8%) developed breast cancer, and 35 (1.4%) died from the disease.
«These results are important because these women have a very high risk of developing breast cancer. From Sant Pau we have followed, for more than a decade, almost 200 patients and we have been able to verify that MRI surveillance really reduces their mortality because we detect tumors in very early stages, when the treatments are very effective,” explains Dr. Ramon y Cajal.
This expert adds that, “the alternative in these women at high genetic risk is to perform a radical double mastectomy as a preventive measure. “It is a very invasive technique and we must remember that we are talking about people without any disease.” (Source: Sant Pau Research Institute)
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