TUESDAY, May 13, 2025 (HealthDay News) — For carriers of pathogenic variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2 with a personal history of breast cancer, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO) is beneficial, resulting in a reduced risk for all-cause mortality and breast cancer-specific mortality, according to a study published online May 7 in The Lancet Oncology.

Hend Hassan, from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the association between BSO and long-term health outcomes in women aged 20 to 75 years carrying pathogenic variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2 and with a personal history of breast cancer. The analyses used data from the National Cancer Registration Dataset and the Hospital Episode Statistics-Admitted Patient Care dataset, and included 1,674 BRCA1, 1,740 BRCA2, and nine BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1995 and 2019.

The researchers found that uptake of BSO was significantly lower among Black and Asian versus White women (odds ratios, 0.48 and 0.47, respectively). Women living in the least socioeconomically deprived areas had higher BSO uptake (odds ratio, 1.38 versus most deprived). For both BRCA1 and BRCA2 pathogenic variant carriers, BSO was associated with a reduced risk for all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 0.52) and with reduced breast cancer-specific mortality (hazard ratios, 0.62 and 0.48 for BRCA1 and BRCA2, respectively). In the combined BRCA1 and BRCA2 sample, BSO was also associated with a reduced risk for a second non-breast cancer (hazard ratio, 0.59). In the combined sample, BSO was not associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, non-breast cancer-specific mortality, contralateral breast cancer, or depression.

“Our findings will be crucial for counseling women with cancer linked to one of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants, allowing them to make informed decisions about whether or not to opt for this operation,” senior study author Antonis Antoniou, Ph.D., also from the University of Cambridge, said in a press release.

Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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