New ovarian risk cancer genes discovered

Ovarian cancer has been referred to as a silent killer because many times it is not detected until it's at an advanced stage. Photo / 123RF

A team of international scientists, including Queensland researchers, have discovered six new ovarian cancer risk genes.

The discovery could help researchers find new ways to treat and even prevent the disease.

The findings by Queensland's Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the University of Cambridge takes the number of ovarian cancer risk regions from 12 to 18.

An Australian woman's risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about one in 100.

The cancer has been referred to as a silent killer because many times it is not detected until it's at an advanced stage.

"The problem is that the most lethal form seems to be the most difficult to detect," says the head of the institute's cancer program Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench.

"It seems to rise very quickly and give you a very narrow window of opportunity to make the diagnosis before it spreads."

A woman's lifetime risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer is greatly increased if she inherits a harmful mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2.

The six new variants or "typos" identified have a more subtle impact than the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, says Prof Chenevix-Trench.

"Individually, each of these typos increases the risk of cancer by a very small amount.

"However, if a woman carries a large number of these typos her risk of developing ovarian cancer may be as high as that conferred by mutations in BRCA1 or 2."

Actress Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy because she carries the faulty gene BRCA1.

"This finding would be particularly relevant to people like Angelina Jolie because in time we should be able to give much more precise estimates of what their ovarian cancer is and that should help them decide when they want to have prophylactic surgery, if at all."

- AAP