International in breast cancer meeting in Jerusalem expand Experts recommend screening the entire population, after finding up to twice as many cases in this that among people with a family history.
"Taking as an example the Ashkenazi Jewish population -the from Central and Eastern Europe-are twice as many people with dangerous mutations that when tests are made only to those with a family history," he said at a press conference Professor Larry Norton, who chaired the conference that brings together thirty experts from the US, Europe and Israel.
"The rules for detection have to change," even if it means "evaluate the psychological, medical and economic consequences of making more general evidence," Norton said, on behalf of the researchers participating in the symposium organized by the Soroka Medical Center and the Foundation Care Health Israel.
Experts remind that early detection of dangerous mutations, such as in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, "can save lives, allowing take steps to minimize the risks."
Women who carry a BRCA mutation have up to an 85% chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer.