Nearly forty years later, an extensive study of women at high risk for developing breast/ovarian cancer has shown that the preventive removal of the ovaries (prophylactic oophorectomy) reduced by 56 percent the risk of developing breast cancer in women who carry the BRCA1 mutation. For women who are carriers of the BRCA2 mutation, the risk was reduced by 46 percent. The risk reduction was greater if the oophorectomy was performed on patients under age 40. The results of the international study, in which Dr. Lynch is a co-author, are published in today’s Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Lynch was one of the first physicians in the world to recommend prophylactic mastectomy and oophorectomy as a management option for high risk patients. "Through our comprehensive family histories and the BRCA1 and BRCA1 gene mutation we are able to identify the patients who are at very high risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer, and offer them another means of prevention," said Dr. Lynch. "Prophylactic surgery is one option in the tool chest, which has now been shown to have significant results in reducing the breast cancer risk."

Dr. Lynch is professor of medicine, chairman of Preventive Medicine at Creighton University, and the holder of the Charles F. and Mary C. Heider Endowed Chair in Cancer Research.