Setting up a breast cancer family history clinic

Breast cancer causes around 21,000 deaths per year in the UK, the vast majority of these occurring in women aged over 50 years with no genetic predisposition to the disease. Screening and symptomatic services for these women, although by no means perfect or homogeneous, have gradually improved over the last 10 years and, perhaps as a result of this, together with increased use of adjuvant systemic therapy, mortality in this group has fallen. Despite this reassuring state of affairs, media interest in the disease and patients' perception of their risk of developing breast cancer have risen. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the new scientific developments in cancer genetics and, in particular, identification of the BRCA1 gene in 1994 and BRCA2 gene shortly afterwards. These genes are dominantly inherited with up to 80% penetrance; thus, women (and occasionally men) inherit these genes and have a high lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, usually at a younger age than average and possibly of a more aggressive phenotype. Unaffected family members can now be screened and, if they prove carriers, screening for early detection and prevention strategies such as bilateral prophylactic mastectomy can be offered. Because of the high risk of ovarian cancer in BRCA1 carriers, screening or prophylactic ovariectomy may also be considered.