Background: The screening of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations is now an established component of risk evaluation and management of familial breast cancer, early-onset breast cancer and bilateral breast cancer patients. There is still some controversy about whether this screening should be done in triple-negative breast cancers. Therefore, we evaluated the BRCA mutation prevalence in patients with triple-negative breast cancer in a multi-ethnic region of China.
Methods: A total 96 women who were diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in the Xinjiang region of China were enrolled in this study. BRCA1 and BRCA2 screening was performed by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (PCR-DHPLC) sequencing analysis. All mutations were confirmed with direct sequencing.
Results: The prevalence of a BRCA1/2 germline mutation was about 25% (24/96) in the Xinjiang region of China. Among 35 selected cases with a family history and/or bilateral breast cancers, the BRCA1/2 mutation prevalence was 25.7% (9/35). Of the remaining 61 patients with unselected triple-negative breast cancer, the BRCA1/2 mutation prevalence was 24.6% (15/61), and all 15 individuals with these mutations were premenopausal patients.
Conclusions: These results suggest that premenopausal women with triple-negative breast cancer may be candidates for genetic testing for BRCA1/2 in the Xinjiang region of China, even in the absence of a family history or bilateral breast cancer.