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Ovarian and breast cancer patients in a pedigree chart of a family

The term hereditary breast-ovarian cancer (HBOC) refers to families in which individuals have suffered from breast cancer and ovarian cancer (either one individual suffered from both, or several individuals in the pedigree suffered from one or the other disease). Physicians, and especially genetic counselors use the term hereditary breast-ovarian cancer (or HBOC) to refer to a family in which they suspect a hereditary factor to cause the pattern of breast and ovarian cancer occurrences in the family.^[1]

[edit] Hereditary causes

In these kind of families, two genes have been found in which mutations can cause this pattern of inherited breast and/or ovarian cancer. These genes are BRCA1 and BRCA2. However, not all families in which HBOC is suspected are found to have mutations in either BRCA1 or BRCA2.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• "FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered -- Hereditary, Genetic Breast or Ovarian Cancer and BRCA Issues". Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, Inc.. http://www.facingourrisk.org/. Retrieved 2008-12-28. 

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