If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, having a strong family history of the condition does not worsen your prognosis, researchers have discovered.
Experts say the British Journal of Surgery findings offer reassurance to women with this hereditary risk.
Although inherited genes increase the likelihood of developing breast cancer, they do not make the disease harder to treat successfully, the research shows.
The authors looked at the outcomes of nearly 3,000 UK breast cancer patients.
All the women in the study developed cancer before the age of 41. Around two-thirds said they had no family history of the disease while the remaining third said they did.
The researchers looked at how the cancers were growing, and how well the tumours responded to treatment.