Women with ‘Jolie’ gene to get ovarian cancer protection

WOMEN with the “Jolie” gene will be offered NHS surveillance so they can attempt to preserve their fertility while protecting themselves from cancer.

Under a pilot scheme, women who carry a faulty BRCA gene but do not want to have their ovaries removed will undergo regular blood tests so they can be alerted if the threat of cancer rises.

It means those women can avoid such surgery – which pushes them into menopause – or delay it until they have completed a family. Research suggests the test can detect nine out of 10 cancers, usually at an early stage.

The pilot scheme run by University College London Hospital Cancer Collaborative aims to recruit 2,000 women aged over 35 from across England.

All will be given tests every four months, which assess changes in the level of the blood chemical CA125, which typically rises in ovarian cancer.

If the programme is successful, it will become standard practice across the NHS. Every year, more than 7,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and over 4,000 women die from the disease. Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late, as symptoms are hard to spot. Only 35 per cent of women will live for 10 or more years after diagnosis, largely due to late detection.

Around one in 400 women have a faulty BRCA gene, which can mean the chance of cancer is as high as 60 per cent.

The fault has been dubbed the “Jolie” gene after Angelina Jolie, the actress, spoke about her decision to undergo a mastectomy and surgery to remove her ovaries to cut her cancer risk. While around two per cent of all women will develop ovarian cancer, the risk is between 40-60 per cent in BRCA1 carriers, while there is a risk of between 10 and 30 per cent among those with the BRCA2 gene.

Women carrying the gene can undergo regular screening to limit their risk of breast cancer, but until now no checks have been offered to reduce the risk of ovarian disease.