A CANCER expert from Manchester has called for doctors to be allowed to break patient confidentiality so they can warn relatives at risk of breast disease.

Scientists test relatives of breast cancer sufferers for two gene faults which increase the risk of inheriting the disease.

But patient confidentiality rules mean doctors cannot discuss one person's medical history with someone else - meaning they cannot warn patients' relatives about the risks they may face.

They are especially concerned about whether patients will pass on the information to estranged relations.

Prof Gareth Evans, from the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre in Manchester, is concerned that some cancer patients were not warning their relatives about the possible risks they face.

Risk

As part of a research project he notified people he thought were at risk - and saw a dramatic increase in the number coming forward for testing. It doubled the uptake in men and prompted a 50 per cent increase in women.

Prof Evans said: "The current method of communicating increased breast cancer risk has too many loopholes. Leaving communication to the family means that many people are not informed of the possibility of testing or are informed in such a way that discourages them from considering it.

"Confidentiality laws must be adjusted to prevent women contracting this terrible disease - current laws are directly hindering the prevention of breast cancer."

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer affecting women today, with one in 10 women developing the disease. Five to ten per cent of cases are linked to the presence of inherited genes.

Previous studies have shown more than 50pc of women who are aware that they carry or could carry these genes opt for preventative surgery.

Estimates suggest up to 90,000 people in the country could have the high risk breast cancer genes BRAC 1 or 2.

Colette McCloud, 34, from Runcorn, developed breast cancer in 2006.

Faulty

She later discovered her estranged father had not told her that doctors had established the family had a faulty gene more than ten years earlier.

Colette said of the current laws: "It would have been extremely easy for my doctor to inform me that I could be at high risk of developing breast cancer. I don't speak to my father and I contracted breast cancer at 31 as a direct result of these restrictive laws.

"I'm extremely angry that doctors were powerless to inform me that I was at such high risk of this life threatening illness. These laws desperately need to change."

The £14m Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre, which is Europe's first ever, purpose built centre of its kind.

It brings together internationally recognised medical experts and will house ground-breaking work into diagnosis, education and research into the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.