deCODE BreastCancer™

The first test measuring genetic risk of the common forms of breast cancer. Complements standard risk modeling tools. More complete assessment of risk and more personalized and effective screening, prevention and treatment.

Better screening & prevention

How can deCODE BreastCancer™ help?

Comprehensive risk assessment

deCODE BreastCancer™ detects genetic risk that is independent of and complementary to the risk factors used in standard clinical risk assessment tools. The results are presented as a numerical value of individual risk relative to the population average, by which the scores of traditional risk modeling tools can be multiplied.

Informing prophylactic therapy

Approximately 14% of women of European descent aged 55 and older who take the deCODE BreastCancer™ test will receive a score placing them at or above a 1.7% absolute risk of developing breast cancer within the following five years. This is the threshold used by the American Society of Clinical Oncology for consideration of the use of tamoxifen (or similar drugs) as preventive therapy. deCODE BreastCancer™ also provides information on whether a woman is more likely to develop estrogen-positive or estrogen-negative breast cancer.

Modification of BRCA-associated risk

The risk conferred by four of the SNPs detected by the deCODE BreastCancer™ test interacts in a multiplicative manner with that conferred by the highly penetrant mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. The results can thereby indicate increased lifetime risk in women positive for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations.

Detects clinically relevant risk in a significant proportion of women

Approximately 6% of women of European descent will receive a score of 1.65 or above, meaning they have at least a 65% greater than average lifetime risk of breast cancer. This corresponds to a lifetime risk of at least 20%, the threshold at which the American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines recommend annual breast MRIs in addition to mammograms. Another 15% of women of European descent will receive a score putting them at between 15 and 20% lifetime risk, warranting consideration of MRI according to the ACS guidelines.

On-line integration of genetic and traditional risk factors

deCODE BreastCancer™ provides novel information that makes the clinical evaluation of individual risk more accurate and complete. This information complements, not replaces, traditional risk factors such as age, age at menarche, number of children, hormonal therapy, and family history. This can be done simply and directly: an individual’s deCODE BreastCancer™ result is a numerical value, by which risk scores for conventional factors are multiplied.

Based on major studies validated in multiple populations

deCODE BreastCancer™ detects 16 genetic risk factors for the common forms of breast cancer. These markers have been discovered and validated in case-control studies in multiple populations^(1-28), studies that have to date involved tens of thousands of breast cancer patients and hundreds of thousands of controls.

This content was last reviewed on April 07, 2011.