Daughters Of Men With Prostate Cancer Are At An Increased Risk Of Suffering From Breast Cancer

A recent study by the U.S. researchers has revealed that women who belong to a family with a history of prostate cancer are at a greater risk and more likely to develop breast cancer in their lifetime. The research findings have reinforced the results of a study carried out in 1994, which got published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

“This is not the first study to examine this relationship, but it is one of the largest to date, if not the largest study,” said the lead researcher Dr. Jennifer L. Beebe-Dimmer, reported The Globe and Mail.

During the study, the U.S. researchers went through the history of over 78,000 women enrolled in Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study between 1993 and 1998. Reportedly, all of the women enrolled in the programme did not have breast cancer at the start. However, a total of 3,506 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed at the end of the follow-up examination in 2009.

Further study revealed that women with a history of first-degree prostate cancer patients (father, brother or son) in the family were at a 14 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer. While on the other hand, women were at an alarming increased risk of 78 percent if a family history of both breast cancer and prostate cancer were present.

“We know that the major breast-cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are also linked to prostate cancer,” said Beebe-Dimmer, reported The Globe and Mail.

“That may explain some of the clustering,” she continued.

The study has been published in the journal of the America Cancer Society, Cancer.

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