Preventive Surgery Safe for Women with Hereditary Risk of Breast Cancer

Rebecca Wiberg, Associate professor at the Department of Diagnostics and Intervention.

ImageMattias Pettersson

“Our results show that the risk of developing breast cancer in the future is very low. This is important evidence that can support clinical decision-making and counselling for women with an increased hereditary risk of breast cancer,” says Rebecca Wiberg, Associate professor at the Department of Diagnostics and Intervention at Umeå University.

The study includes 1,208 Swedish women with a confirmed pathogenic variant in BRCA1 or BRCA2, but no previous breast cancer diagnosis, identified between 1994 and 2019. Only 1 out of the 507 women who underwent surgery developed breast cancer, compared with 112 out of 701 women who did not have preventive surgery.

“We also observed a low incidence of complications requiring surgical treatment following the procedure. Taken together, this indicates that it is a safe intervention,” says Rebecca Wiberg.

Breast cancer affects approximately one in ten women in Sweden. In about 2.5 percent of cases, the disease is caused by hereditary mutations in the breast cancer genes BRCA1 or BRCA2. Women who carry these genetic variants have a very high lifetime risk of developing breast cancer—up to 70 percent—and are therefore offered special surveillance programmes or preventive surgery in the form of risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM).