Professionally led support groups may ease anxiety and depression in women who carry gene mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancers, a new study suggests.

Women with inherited mutations in genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2 have a higher-than-average risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer in their lifetimes. The discovery in the 1990s that these mutations are linked to the cancers has allowed doctors, through genetic testing, to identify women who need to be closely monitored for the diseases. But it has also created a source of great distress for mutation carriers.

Women must first face the fact that they have a higher risk of two cancers, and then decide whether they want to take preemptive action by having their breasts or ovaries surgically removed.

The new study is the first to evaluate whether a support group can help women with BRCA mutations deal with their situation, lead author Dr. Mary Jane Esplen, of the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, told Reuters Health.

She and her colleagues followed 67 women with BRCA mutations who attended professionally led support groups in Canada and Australia. They found that after six months, many women showed improvement in “cancer worries,” as well as in anxiety and depression - with those with the most serious symptoms showing the greatest benefit. [

The findings appear in the November 15th issue of the journal Cancer.

“Being diagnosed with a gene mutation is potentially life-altering information,” Esplen said.

The support-group therapy her team studied - known as supportive-expressive group therapy - let women express their emotions and deal with the potential threat of death, according to Esplen. It also focused on the “tough decisions” regarding preventive surgery, she said, and on the issue of telling one’s children that BRCA mutations run in the family.

During the study and after, a number of women made decisions on whether to have their breasts or ovaries removed - which suggests, according to the researchers, that the groups helped some women in their decision-making.

Each group was led by both a mental health professional and a genetic counselor, which was important, Esplen noted. But it was the support of other women in the same situation that made the biggest impact on participants’ well-being, according to the researcher.

Because all of the women in the study attended a support group, there was no “control” group to serve as a comparison. Plans are underway, Esplen said, for a larger study to see whether women with BRCA mutations who take part in a support group fare better than their peers who do not.

SOURCE: Cancer, November 15, 2004.