This blog has concentrated on lead-related issues so the title of this post may be confusing. But it is absolutely about lead.
A defective BRCA1 gene results in a diminished ability to repair DNA damage in your body.

In females, this leads to a roughly 70% whole of life risk of breast cancer and up to a 50% risk of ovarian cancer. As a result, women with the defective gene are having prophylactic mastectomies, oophorectomies (removal of ovaries) and hysterectomies.

Males with the defective BRCA1 gene have about a 10-fold increase in breast cancer (1-2% compared to 0.1%). Brian Arndt, who I’ve mentioned in previous posts, had the BRCA1 gene and had to have a mastectomy because of breast cancer, so while men are less affected, it’s still a problem.

I’m going to rehash some other stuff already posted.

Analysis of cadaver tissue lead content in the mid 1970s indicated that lead was present in the bones (95%), and that lead levels were raised in atheromas, the aorta, the prostate and the ovaries. I had previously overlooked the lead content of ovaries, possibly because I’m a male.

One of the many deleterious effects of lead is the production of free radicals that can result in cellular and DNA damage. So, what about the lead in ovaries?

I came across a paper published in 2024, of a prospective study of almost 1000 women in Poland with the defective BRCA1 gene, that compared cancer incidence with blood lead levels. See: “Blood Lead Level as Marker of Increased Risk of Ovarian Cancer in BRCA1 Carriers”, Adam Kilja´nczyk et al, Nutrients 2024, 16, 1370.

The results were quite startling as the incidence of ovarian cancer was found to increase 3-fold as blood lead levels increased. That was at quite low blood lead levels.

The results suggest that lead plus a defective DNA repair gene results in a 3-fold increase in ovarian cancer. Wow.

This has a lot of ramifications because BRCA1 ovarian cancer rates hadn’t been linked to any other causative factor than just the BRCA1 gene. In fact, if you compare the risk rates, the possibility exists that the ovarian cancer rates could be due solely to the presence of lead. It also suggests that if this is the case, removing the lead might reduce the risk, eventually leading to the preservation of reproductive organs and greatly reducing the side effects from prophylactic surgery.

And then there’s the other interesting bit, about the prostate. I’ve pointed out that lead accumulates in the prostate, and if you combine that with what you’ve learned about the ovaries and BRCA1, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that prostate cancer is related to BRCA1, BRCA2 and other defective DNA repair genes.
The stated lifetime incidence of prostate cancer with an impaired BRCA1 gene is up to 26%, BRCA2 is up to 61%, as opposed to about 10% for the general population.
There is some additional evidence as well, such as the detection of calcification in the prostate which is postulated to be responsible for prostate hyperplasia. Calcification is the body’s way of reacting to inflammatory agents. There was also a study that correlated urinary lead content with PSA.

That’s kind of suggestive that prostate “problems” and lead could be linked.

Now if only our medical people were a bit more interested in lead instead of ignoring it.