Genetic testing can now tell a woman her risk of breast cancer with a high degree of accuracy, British researchers said today.
The test can pin-point the 1% of women who have a one in three risk of developing the disease, according to the major study.
The researchers created a genetic test which allocated a score to women based on 77 positions in DNA code.
The study, at Cambridge University and the Institute of Cancer Research, London, involved an analysis of the genes of more than 65,000 women.
Reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the study found that the 20% of women with the highest scores faced an increased risk of breast cancer 1.8 times the average.
Researcher Professor Montserrat Garcia-Closas said: "Our study is the most definitive so far to show the clear benefits of using genetic testing for a large number of genetic risk factors in identifying women at elevated risk of developing breast cancer.
"This type of testing could fit alongside other standard risk measures, such as family history and body mass index, to improve our ability to target the best preventive treatments and advice to those women most likely to benefit from them.
"It’s now important to work out how this sort of test could be used widely in a healthcare, rather than in a research setting."
Fellow researcher Professor Doug Easton, from Cambridge, added: "Breast cancer genes are rarely out of the news, but we’ve now reached a crucial stage at which all this research can be combined to help target screening and advice to those women who need them the most.
"There’s still work to be done to determine how tests like this could complement other risk factors, such as age, lifestyle and family history, but it’s a major step in the right direction that will hopefully see genetic risk prediction become part of routine breast screening in the years to come."
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 9 April 2015
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