Since being diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2005 i have studied and found out alot about cancer (very inquisitive person) however a friend has told me once you have had breast cancer you are more prone to develop cervical cancer, and cancer of the ovaries, i’ve never heard this said before. i wondered if any one could shed any light on this? many thanks. X
Hi Kippy,
I am no expert on this subject but I think your friend is referring to those with the BRCA1 & 2 mutations. (hereditary). Those with BRCA1 mutation have a risk for both breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Those with BRCA2 have a risk for breast cancer and ovarian but lower than BRCA1 carriers. They also have risk for other cancer types too such as pancreatic, laryngeal, stomach and melanoma.
Maybe those with these mutations know a bit more or will correct me if I am wrong.
Dawnhc
There is no connnection between cervical cancer and breast cancer to my knowledge. In fact it is now known that cervical cancer is caused by a wart virus which some people are exposed to. You are more likely for this to happen if you have several sexual partners so nuns are less likely to get it. They are more likely to get breast cancer however, as breast cancer is more likely in childless women as it is related to oestrogen. The more periods you have, the higher the risk, plus breast feeding is a protective factor.
Cervical cancer is likely to develop after 50, as a result of which I now have only five yearly cervical smears. On the other hand breast cancer is more likely to develop after 50.
Uterine cancer, which is cancer of the lining of the womb is more likely after the menopause. Tamoxifen increases the risk of uterine cancer slightly. Bleeding after the menopause is a symptom so make sure you get any abnormal bleeding checked out if you get this, especially if you took tamoxifen.
Mole
There is no connection between a BRCA mutation and cervical cancer. BRCA 1 cancers tend to be more aggressive than BRCA 2 but the risks are roughly the same for breast and ovarian cancers for both mutations.
The above comments are interesting. I have done a bit of checking around and one particular site that I looked at
library.nhs.uk/genepool/ViewResource.aspx?resID=111371
stated that BRCA1 carriers do have an increased risk of, amongst others, cervical cancer.
Also on a further site that I looked at it stated that for BRCA1 mutation there was a
65% life time risk for bc (BRCA2 - 45%);
40-60% for second bc - BRCA1;
30% lifetime risk for ovarian (BRCA1) and 11% for BRCA2.
That seems to be quite a big difference in risk. But of course that is one study - there may well be others that will contradict this.
Dawnhc
very interesting Dawn, it does look like for BRAC1 there is a raised risk of cervical cancer although the risk isn’t raised that much. I wonder where NHS UK got the research for this from as it would be interesting to see sample size etc
Mole