Some women are at increased risk of ovarian cancer because they have a strong family history of ovarian cancer or breast cancer.
A strong family history means having several close blood relatives (on the mother’s or father’s side of the family) who have had breast or ovarian cancer, especially if this was diagnosed at an early age.
There are a number of factors that can impact on a woman’s family history of ovarian cancer. Ask your doctor for more information.
Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer
Some women are at increased risk because a family member is known to have inherited a fault in a gene associated with breast or ovarian cancer
If ovarian cancer is caused by inheriting a faulty gene, this is called hereditary cancer. We all inherit a set of genes from each of our parents. Sometimes there’s a fault in one copy of a gene which stops that gene working properly. This fault is called a mutation. There are several genes for which inherited faults may be involved in the development of breast or ovarian cancer. These are genes which normally prevent a woman developing breast or ovarian cancer.
Two genes associated with ovarian cancer are called BRCA1 and BRCA2. Their names come from the abbreviation of ‘breast cancer one’ and ‘breast cancer two’. If a woman has inherited a fault in one of these genes, she has a high chance of developing ovarian cancer or breast cancer, although it does not mean that she is certain to develop cancer.
Around 5% of all ovarian and breast cancers can be explained by an inherited gene fault in BRCA1 or BRCA2.
Risk-reducing surgery
Women who are known to be at increased risk of ovarian cancer may choose to have their ovaries removed in order to reduce this risk. Removal of the ovaries (prophylactic oophorectomy) reduces the risk of ovarian cancer by at least 90% and reduces the risk of breast cancer by approximately half in women at increased risk. However, removal of the ovaries will not always prevent breast or ovarian cancer from developing.
More information
The Hereditary Cancer Clinic and the Centre for Genetics Education have developed an Information Booklet and Decision Aid for women who are at high or potentially high risk of developing ovarian cancer and would like to know more about reducing their risk.
To order a copy of the resource, call the Cancer Council Helpline on 13 11 20.
