BOADICEA Program
Predicts Genetic Cancer Risk in Women
Behind the Cancer Headlines®
Cancer Research
The Breast and Ovarian Analysis of
Disease Incidence and Carrier Estimation Algorithm—BOADICEA—uses detailed
family history to predict a woman's risk of developing cancer. It improves on
previous programs because it takes into account genetic mutations besides those
of the well-known BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
The researchers plan to offer
BOADICEA to health professionals to help them pre-select women likely to be at
high risk for further testing – and sparing others the anxiety of waiting for
genetic test results. The program is described in the British Journal of Cancer.
Women with a strong risk of breast
and ovarian cancer can be offered pre-emptive measures such as screening from
an early age, preventive surgery (removing breasts or ovaries) or
chemoprevention using drugs such as tamoxifen.
But the genetic tests needed to
identify women as having genetic mutations in genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 are
expensive. They can also be slow, causing considerable anxiety in the many
patients who turn out not to be at high risk.
Professor Doug Easton of the
Cancer Research UK Genetic Epidemiology Unit in
"BOADICEA works out a woman's
breast and ovarian cancer risk using detailed information on her family history
of cancer. The program calculates both her risk of carrying
a particular cancer-causing mutation, and her overall risk of developing breast
or ovarian cancer."
The program predicts cancer risk
based on detailed genetic data gathered on 1,484 women with breast cancer and
156 families with multiple breast and ovarian cancer cases.
The team has just finished testing
the program's accuracy by using it to predict high genetic risk of breast
cancer in women whose family history was collected in the past by doctors.
Comparing BOADICEA's answers to the results of
genetic tests in those women has confirmed the program's strength.
Many genes are responsible for a
woman's inherited risk of breast cancer. Most of these genes have only a small
effect on their own, but working together they are a strong influence. The detailed
family data the team have been put into BOADICEA means the program can take the
influence of all of these genes into account – even those genes for which there
is no biological test.
"Having put the finished
product through its paces by rigorously testing it, we have confirmed that it
is more accurate than any such program created in the past."
The team is currently making
BOADICEA more 'user friendly' and plans to make it available via the web to
oncologists and geneticists.
SOURCE:
British Journal of Cancer,
Cancer Research