Familial ovarian carcinoma: a problem in genetic counselling

Ovarian papillary adenocarcinoma is reported in two families. In one family, this tumor was detected in four females, of whom two had had mammary cancer below the development of the ovarian tumor. In the second family, a mother and daughter died of ovarian adenocarcinoma. The mode of inheritance in both families fits the pattern of autosomal dominant transmission of a single gene. Both are Jewish families from Germany, presently residing in Israel. The two families are presented as examples illustrating the difficult question of genetic counselling in families with recurrent cases of ovarian carcinoma. The difficulty arises because this tumor is relatively frequent but is usually observed in isolated cases without systematic follow-up in the patients' families. Only a few cases, where more than one person in a family is affected, have been selectively reported in the literature.