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Knowing your genetic risk of breast cancer can help you assess your overall risk.

deCODEme calculates your genetic risk of breast cancer for eight common genetic variants

deCODEme does not include the high-risk but rare BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer risk variants.

Breast cancer and genetics

Family history of breast cancer is a known risk factor

Many women are concerned about developing breast cancer. This is not surprising, given that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and one of the most deadly cancers in both men and women (only after Lung Cancer and Colorectal Cancer). Women with a family history of breast cancer are often more concerned, in light of research showing how a number of genes contribute significantly to the risk of developing breast cancer.

Changes in certain genes increase the risk of breast cancer

You may have heard of the high risk genetic variants associated with breast cancer and ovarian cancer found in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These are however very rare variants, present in only 2% - 5% of breast cancer patients. There are several, more common, genetic variants that play a role in a much larger proportion, if not all breast cancer cases, but carry less risk than the BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants. Eleven such common genetic variants are known to increase the risk of developing breast cancer in people of European descent: two on chromosomes 2 and 5 and one on each of the following chromosomes: 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 14 and 16. A variant in the ESR1 gene on chromosome 6 contributes to the risk of breast cancer in East Asians but not people of European descent (see scientific details).

Knowing your family history is not enough

While each of these common genetic variants on its own is associated with only a small increase in risk of breast cancer, the combined genetic risk can be high if a person inherits many or all of these variants. Combinations of these common breast cancer risk variants may be difficult to trace through family history. Herein lies the informative value of the deCODEme genetic test for breast cancer.

deCODEme calculates your genetic risk of breast cancer for common variants

The deCODEme Complete Scan identifies these eleven common genetic variants and provides interpretation of their associated risk for developing breast cancer in women of European descent (see scientific details). For women of East-Asian descent the deCODEme Complete Scan calculates genetic risk associated with five variants that have been validated in this population. At the present time no risk estimation data are available for people of other ethnicities for the common variants included in the deCODEme Complete Scan.

Please note that the deCODEme genetic scan does not test for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 variants. If one has close relatives with early onset breast cancer and ovarian cancer, the possibility of a BRCA mutation should be discussed with a doctor.

More information on the genetics of breast cancer

• The National Cancer Institute: Genetic Testing for Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk: It’s Your Choice
• The National Library of Medicine: Genetic Home Reference on Breast Cancer

This content was last reviewed on February 21, 2011.

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