Tuesday 24 January 2012
Ovarian cancer patients who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations are significantly more likely to survive the disease than women without these faulty genes, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association* today. The study was a large international collaboration that included UK researchers from the University of Cambridge, The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre and the University of Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre.
The study, which combined the results of 26 international trials, showed 44 per cent of women with BRCA1 faults and 52 per cent of women with BRCA2 faults were alive five years after they were diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer**.
This compares with 36 per cent of women without a fault in one of these genes who were alive five years after their diagnosis.
The researchers say having a faulty BRCA gene could alter the biology of a tumour, making it more responsive to treatment.
It could also be because the normal role of a BRCA gene is to repair damage to DNA. Having a faulty BRCA gene could leave the tumour less able to repair damaged DNA and so more vulnerable to chemotherapy.
Cancer Research UK’s Dr Paul Pharoah, lead author based at the University of Cambridge, said: “Our study is the largest on this topic to date, looking at over 1,100 ovarian cancer patients with faulty BRCA1 genes and around 300 with faulty BRCA2 genes.
“Our results could change the way ovarian cancer is treated. Women with BRCA faults respond better than we thought to current treatments but it’s important that researchers now look at what treatment approaches work best for women without those genetic faults.
“We also need to consider how our results affect research. Clinical trials should be designed to take this difference in survival into account. Otherwise trial results may not be an accurate reflection of what’s really going on.”
Co-author Professor Montserrat Garcia-Closas, from The Institute of Cancer Research, said “Our study provides evidence that women with high grade serious ovarian cancer could benefit from routine screening for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, to assist doctors in giving them an accurate prognosis and help make sure they receive the best possible treatment.”
“My colleagues at the ICR were instrumental in the discovery of BRCA2 and the development of the first drugs that target faulty BRCA2. This study provides further evidence that ovarian cancers are heterogeneous, and highlights the importance of identifying inherited faults to design the best possible treatment strategies.”
Around 6,500 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year and 90 per cent of these cases are epithelial ovarian cancer. Around 10 per cent of women with epithelial ovarian cancer carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 faults.
Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage so it remains the fourth biggest cause of cancer death in women, with around 4,400 ovarian cancer deaths in the UK each year.
Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “This is an intriguing study with important implications for the treatment of ovarian cancer. Women with faulty BRCA genes can be up to 40 per cent more likely to develop ovarian cancer than the rest of the population, but now we know that they are also more likely to survive the disease.
“Interestingly, this difference in survival isn’t seen in women with breast cancer who have faulty BRCA genes, so understanding why we’re seeing this in ovarian cancer could reveal some clues on how to improve treatment for the disease.”
-ENDS-
Media contact: Rachel Gonzaga in the Cancer Research UK press office on 020 3469 8300 or, out-of-hours, the duty press officer on 07050 264 059.
Notes to editors:
* A multi-center study to evaluate the impact of germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations on Ovarian Cancer Survival. Bolton et al. Journal of the American Medical Association.
** The vast majority of ovarian cancers are classified as "epithelial" and are believed to arise from the surface (epithelium) of the ovary.
About Cancer Research UK
- Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research
- The charity’s groundbreaking work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives. This work is funded entirely by the public.
- Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival rates double in the last forty years.
- Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
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The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)
- The ICR is Europe’s leading cancer research centre
- The ICR has been ranked the UK’s top academic research centre, based on the results of the Higher Education Funding Council’s Research Assessment Exercise
- The ICR works closely with partner The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust to ensure patients immediately benefit from new research. Together the two organisations form the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe
- The ICR has charitable status and relies on voluntary income
- As a college of the University of London, the ICR also provides postgraduate higher education of international distinction
- Over its 100-year history, the ICR’s achievements include identifying the potential link between smoking and lung cancer which was subsequently confirmed, discovering that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer and isolating more cancer-related genes than any other organisation in the world
- The ICR is home to the world’s leading academic cancer drug development team. Several important anti-cancer drugs used worldwide were synthesised at the ICR and it has discovered an average of two preclinical candidates each year over the past five years.
- The Institute of Cancer Research’s Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit (ICR-CTSU) is an academic clinical trials unit accredited by the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) to conduct clinical trials into cancer treatments. The department is funded by an infrastructure grant from Cancer Research UK.
For more information visit www.icr.ac.uk