BENGALURU: Cancer-causing BRCA (BReast CAncer) gene mutations are at least three times more prevalent in India compared to Western countries, revealed a study whose findings were released here on Friday by Strand Life Sciences, a bioinformatics company.
As per the latest statistics published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, the incidence of breast cancer in Bengaluru is 34 per one lakh females. Genetic testing gives people the chance to learn if their breast cancer is due to an inherited gene mutation.
Dr Sudhir Borgonha, Chief Medical Officer, Strand Life Sciences, said, “72 per cent of the first degree relatives (parents, children, siblings) of cancer patients who underwent testing were found to be positive for the same mutation responsible for the cancer in the family. Therefore, it is recommended that relatives of a patient should be tested in order to be aware of their cancer risk predisposition and to take required preventive measures.”
Another finding suggested that 20 per cent of BRCA-positive breast and ovarian cancer patients displayed no family history of cancer. This means that if a patient undergoes genetic testing on the basis of family history alone, diagnoses will be missed in one among five individuals.