Hemochromatosis and ovarian cancer

Evaluation of: Gannon PO, Medelci S, Le Page C et al. Impact of hemochromatosis gene (HFE) mutations on epithelial ovarian cancer risk and prognosis. Int. J. Cancer 128(10), 2326-2334 (2011). The frequency of two mutations (C282Y and D62H) of the hemochromatosis gene were investigated in women with ovarian cancer. A single allele mutation of the C282Y but not the H63D gene product was detected in 8-9% of women with benign ovarian tumors (n = 124) and ovarian cancers (n = 360) compared with 2.5% for controls (n = 80) representing a 4.9-fold increase in risk. With high-grade serous ovarian cancers (n = 179), the survival rate of women with a single allele C282Y mutation was reduced from 39 to 19 months. These results implicate mutations of the hemochromatosis gene in the generation and severity of ovarian cancers, which may have prognostic value.