The increasing role of breast-conserving treatment in patients with BRCA-related breast cancer: an appraisal of recent literature

Description

Alessandro Fancellu and colleagues review, in a 2026 article, the growing case for breast-conserving treatment in patients whose breast cancer stems from inherited BRCA gene faults. Women with such faults face a lifetime breast cancer risk near sixty to seventy percent. Keeping the breast has long been debated for them, over fears of local return and second cancers. The review weighs cohort studies and pooled analyses against mastectomy, adding biology and patient views.

Conserving treatment brought more events in the same breast, yet long-term survival matched mastectomy. The split may reflect tumor biology: broken DNA repair makes BRCA cancers unusually responsive to drug treatment, above all before surgery. New drug classes, notably PARP inhibitors, plus better radiation and imaging, widen the safe use of conservation. The authors conclude conservation is a sound option for selected carriers, decided jointly by a multi-disciplinary team.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13463116