Similar rates of survival for young women carrying the BRCA gene with breast cancer compared to those who did not

A major new study published in the Lancet Oncology has found similar rates of survival between young women with breast cancer who carry one of the high-risk gene mutations, and those who did not. Approximately 97 per cent of BRCA carriers were alive two years after diagnosis compared with 96.6 per cent for women without a mutation. Similar differences in the survival rates between the women were also found at both five and ten years after diagnosis.

The research included 2,733 women (18 to 40 years old) who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and had undergone initial treatment between 2000 and 2008 in Britain.