A JAMA Oncology published research has unveiled that removal of ovaries can bring a decline in breast cancer death in women who have being diagnosed with the cancer and carry a BRCA1 gene mutation.

Study researchers explained that women who have a germline mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene have up to 70% chance of getting diagnosed with breast cancer. Once women are diagnosed with the cancer, they are at high risk of having second primary breast and ovarian cancers.

Researchers said earlier studies have linked reduced mortality associated with oophorectomy among women having a history of breast cancer and they are also the carriers of BRCA gene mutation carriers.

In order to confirm these observations, the researchers enrolled a group of women having BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations and early-stage breast cancer. In the study, there were 676 women and out of them, 345 have undergone oophorectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer and 331 women had their ovaries.

The researchers reported 20-year survival for the complete group was 77.4%. In the complete group, there was 56% reduction in breast cancer death linked with oophorectomy. The researchers noted that the oophorectomy procedure was associated with significant reduction in breast cancer related deaths in women having BRCA1 mutation.

The difference was not found in women with a BRCA2 mutation, as 43% reduction was not considered significant by the researchers. The researchers also unveiled about nine deaths from ovarian cancer in the group who did not undergo the procedure.

“It is important that follow-up studies be performed on women who undergo oophorectomy as part of their initial treatment, in particular, those women who undergo oophorectomy in the first year after diagnosis”, affirmed study researchers.