BRCAPROTM is a statistical model, with associated software, for assessing the probability that an individual carries a germline deleterious mutation of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, based on family history of breast and ovarian cancer, based on his or her family's history of breast and ovarian cancer, including male breast cancer and bilateral synchronous and asynchronous diagnoses. BRCAPROTM uses a Mendelian approach that assumes autosomal dominant inheritance. This assumption is supported extensively by previous linkage analyses. Age-dependent penetrances and prevalences are based on a systematic review of the literature.
Recent updates to the BRCAPROTM software include:
- BRCAPRO has been re-calibrated and improved with updated penetrances for contralateral breast cancer.
- Package now allows for input on ethnicity for each family member, in order to better characterize families containing more than one ethnic groups, each of which may present different allele frequencies for the mutations of interest.
- Mastectomy as an intervention has been added to BRCAPROTM.
- Improved the error message returned when there is a problem with the Twins input.