Risk assessment and genetic testing for ovarian cancer.

Abstract

Prevention of ovarian cancer starts with identifying women at high risk for this deadly disease. Once identified, these women can be offered risk-reducing options such as oral contraceptives and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. In this review, strategies for identifying high-risk individuals and the clinical utility of genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 will be discussed. To offer potentially life-saving interventions for at-risk family members, we propose that every woman newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer be offered genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes because mutations in these genes are the strongest known predictors of ovarian cancer risk.