BRCA1/2 mutations and outcomes among Middle Eastern patients with early-onset breast cancer in Oman

High prevalence of early-onset breast cancer (EOBC) has been reported in Middle Eastern populations. For example, in Oman more than 50% of patients with breast cancer (BC) are under age 45 at diagnosis. Causes for this high incidence are unknown. Germline BRCA gene mutations have been associated with EOBC, however, prevalence of these mutations and how they relate to EOBC in Oman has not been assessed.

Clinical data were collected for patients with BC treated at Royal Hospital, Oman between 2010 and 2022. Germline BRCA1/2 gene mutations were identified using sequencing and MLPA. Correlation and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were performed to test relationships among clinico-pathological features, gene mutations, and outcomes.

Total of 1336 Middle Eastern patients with BC were included; 611 were aged <45 at diagnosis (45.7%). No significant correlation was found between BRCA1/2 mutation status and EOBC (P = .229), and the majority of EOBC cases had no family history of BC. EOBC tumors did, however, differ in clinicopathological features; EOBCs were significantly larger (P < .0001), of higher grade (P < .0001), and included more HER2-enriched, and triple negative subtypes (P = .018) compared with later onset cases. Accordingly, survival analyses revealed that EOBC had significantly worse disease-free survival (P = .002). BRCA gene variants showed a distinct range of mutations including, in BRCA2, 3 previously unreported mutations and 4 potential founder recurrent mutations.

Our findings showed that germline BRCA1/2 mutations were not over-represented in EOBC cases in Oman, and therefore are unlikely to be responsible for high EOBC rates.