Many Ashkenazi women may be overestimating their susceptibility to developing breast cancer, according to new research.
Analysts at the University of Melbourne, Australia, asked participants of the Australian Jewish Breast Cancer Study to calculate what they believed their chances of developing cancer to be.
Professor John Hopper said the results had revealed a clear trend: “The high risk people do not think they are high, but the low risk people do think they are high. At the moment, people generally think they are at much higher risk than is really the case.”
The two most common genes linked with an inherited risk of developing cancer are BRCA-1 and BRCA-2.
They normally help protect cells from cancerous changes, but where the gene is faulty the opposite is true, putting a woman’s lifetime risk of getting cancer as high as 85 per cent.
The mutated gene is carried by one in around 50 Ashkenazi women, compared to one in 450 in the general population.
Prof Hopper added: “It is the first time we have pulled risk apart in this way, looking at gradations of risk. All the women had received risk information and most had had counselling, unlike the general population, so they already knew a lot more.
“Ashkenazi women are much more attuned to genetics because of the amount of information in the Jewish community about genetic illnesses.”
But he said substantial education would be needed to help women fully understand the levels of risk they face.
The results of the study were published in the British Journal of Cancer last month.