Ashkenazi Jewish women should be screened for breast cancer genes, doctors say

Ashkenazi Jewish women should be screened for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes linked to breast cancer.

That’s the recommendation by a US task force announced in an editorial this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

One in 40 Ashkenazi Jews have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, compared with one in 300 people in the general population, according to studies.

The US Preventative Services Task Force says that primary care doctors should assess women’s BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation risks if their ancestry is prone to BRCA mutations, such as Ashkenazi Jewish women, and if they previously were treated for breast or ovarian cancer.

The editorial also says that “researchers are actively reporting higher BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation frequencies across diverse populations than previously realized.”

— JTA