THURSDAY, Jan. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO), the removal of an ovary together with the fallopian tube, is strongly linked to reducing the risk of breast and gynecologic cancers, according to a report published online Jan. 13 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Timothy R. Rebbeck, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 10 clinical studies evaluating breast, ovarian and fallopian tube outcomes in women who underwent a prophylactic RRSO between 1999 and 2007. All of the women evaluated carried a mutation either in the BRCA1 gene, BRCA2 gene, or both (BRCA1/2).

The investigators found that in women with BRCA1/2 mutations, prophylactic RRSO was associated with a reduction in breast cancer (hazard ratio, 0.49). A similar reduced risk was associated in women with either BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. Prophylactic RRSO was also associated with a significant reduction in the risk of ovarian or fallopian tube malignancies in women with BRCA1/2 mutations (HR, 0.21), the report indicates.

The authors conclude that these estimates in risk reduction "indicate that RRSO is strongly associated with reductions in the risk of breast, ovarian and fallopian tube cancers, and should provide guidance to women in planning cancer risk reduction strategies."

One study author reports a financial relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.

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