Women may often lack information about breast cancer on their father's side
of the family, a problem that could cloud their view of their own risk, new
research suggests.
In a study of 899 women age 40 and older, the researchers found that 16
percent of the women said there was a history of breast cancer in their mother's
family, while just 10 percent reported a paternal history of the disease.
The discrepancy is suspect because statistically speaking, women should
generally have a similar number of maternal and paternal relatives affected by
breast cancer.
The findings, according to Dr. John M. Quillin of Virginia Commonwealth
University in Richmond and colleagues, have implications for both women and
their doctors, who use family history to help gauge whether a woman has a
higher-than-average breast cancer risk.
The researchers report their findings in the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine.
Women need to find out all they can about breast cancer in their father's
family, and doctors need to specifically question them about it, Dr. Quillin
told Reuters Health.
Family history is one of the established risk factors for breast cancer, and
most studies have indicated that this genetic risk is equally likely to be
passed on from mothers or fathers, Quillin said.
It is possible, he noted, that women in his study accurately reported their
family history of breast cancer. The women all volunteered for the study,
Quillin explained, and if a large number of women with a maternal family history
of breast cancer enrolled, that could explain the discrepancy in the findings.
It's more likely, however, that the women were less aware of breast cancer on
the father's side of the family, according to the researchers.
But greater awareness isn't only a matter of women delving more deeply into
their father's family history. Quillin said men need to learn about their
relatives' health history, then share that information with their own family.
"Maternal and paternal family histories each only tell half of the genetic
story," he noted.
SOURCE: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, September
2006.
