The results of a new study suggest that men, as well as women, who carry the BRCA2 gene mutation have an elevated cancer risk. While this mutation is known to increase the risk of Breast and Ovarian cancer in women, male carriers appear to have a higher risk of cancer of the prostate and pancreas, and possibly the bone and pharynx, according to a report in the Journal of Medical Genetics.

This study is not the first to link the BRCA2 gene with non-breast and non-ovarian malignancies. However, most earlier studies concentrated on families that had several members with breast or Ovarian cancer. Thus, the effect of BRCA2 in families with a less striking history of disease was unclear.

To investigate, Dr. Christi van Asperen, from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues analyzed data from 139 BRCA2 families with 66 different pathogenic mutations. The researchers estimated cancer risk in 1,811 family members with a 50 percent prior probability of being a carrier.

Based on Dutch cancer incidence rates, BRCA2 carriers were 5.9-, 2.5-, 14.4-, and 7.3-times more likely to have cancers of the pancreas, prostate, bone and pharynx, respectively. The associations with the latter two malignancies were less certain due to fewer case numbers.

BRCA2 carrier status also raised the risk of digestive tract cancers by 50 percent, the report suggests.

Virtually all of the elevated cancer risks were confined to men and the effect of BRCA2 on risk was more pronounced for people younger than 65 years of age. Finally, BRCA2 mutations located outside the known Ovarian cancer cluster region conferred a particularly high risk of these other malignancies.

“Larger databases with extended follow-up are needed to provide insight into mutation specific risks of selected carriers in BRCA2 families,” the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Journal of Medical Genetics, September 2005.