Ovarian cancer risk lowered with ovary removal by age 35 in women with BRCA1 gene mutation

Women who carry the BRCA1 gene mutation, shown to increase risk for some cancers, may reduce their risk for developing ovarian cancer by having their ovaries removed by age 35, a new study finds.

The preventative ovary removal surgery reduces the likelihood of cancer-related death before age 70 by 77 percent in women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.

Normally, BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes limit tumor growth and fix damaged DNA, but a mutated version increases the risk of certain cancers, mainly breast and ovarian cancer.

After studying international data on 2,274 women with either gene mutation over an average of 5 years, researchers found that 186 women developed ovarian fallopian tube or abdominal cancer. But women who elected to have their ovaries removed reduced their ovarian cancer risk by 80 percent.

Normally, the chances of any woman getting cancer is 1.4 percent, but if a woman with the BRCA1 gene mutation still hasn't had her ovaries removed by age 40, her chances go up by 4 percent, and waiting until age 50 increases the risk to 14.2 percent. However, the study only found one case of ovarian cancer among those with the BRCA2 mutation in which the woman was diagnosed before 50.

"To me, waiting to have oophorectomy until after 35 is too much of a chance to take," study author Dr. Steven Narod, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto in Canada, said in a press release. "These data are so striking that we believe prophylactic oophorectomy by age 35 should become a universal standard for women with BRCA1 mutations."

The National Cancer Institute says that about 12 percent of women will get breast cancer at some point in their life, and women with the BRCA1 gene mutation by having their ovaries removed not only decreased their risk for ovarian cancer but also had a 48 percent lower chance of getting breast cancer as well.

"If you get it, it doesn't tend to end well. This is why, despite the fact that there can be negative consequences, most clinics encourage people to (have an oophorectomy), and a lot of people do consider it," Aletta Poll, a genetic counsellor at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, told CBS News.