What are the chances a mutated gene is inherited?
Every cell usually has two copies of each gene: one inherited from the mother and one inherited from the father. Most types of hereditary ovarian cancer follow an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern, in which a mutation needs to happen in only one copy of the gene for the person to have an increased risk of getting the disease. This means that a parent with a gene mutation may pass on a copy of the normal gene or a copy of the gene with a mutation. Therefore, a child who has a parent with a mutation has a 50% chance of inheriting that mutation. A brother, sister, or parent of a person who has a gene mutation also has a 50% chance of having the same mutation. What is a woman’s average risk for ovarian cancer? A woman’s average risk of developing ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about one in 71. How common is ovarian cancer? Ovarian cancer is the ninth most common cancer and fifth most common cause of cancer death among women. In 2009, an estimated 21,550 women in the United Stat
