RAD51 Mutations Confer Moderate Risk of Ovarian Cancer

(August 19, 2015)  Deleterious mutations in RAD51C and RAD51D genes are associated with increased risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), according to a study published online Aug. 10 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Honglin Song, PhD, from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a genetic study using germline DNA from 3,429 patients with invasive EOC and 2,772 controls from a case-control study, as well as 2,000 unaffected BRCA1/2-negative women from the U.K. Familial Ovarian Cancer Screening Study.

OCRF SAC member Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, and OCRF grantee Simon Gayther, PhD, were among the authors of the study. “These results confirm that RAD51C and RAD51D are moderate ovarian cancer susceptibility genes and suggest that they confer levels of risk of EOC that may warrant their use alongsideBRCA1 and BRCA2 in routine clinical genetic testing,” the authors write.

Click here to read the abstract.