thinkpink october is Breast Cancer awareness month
inSiDe page 3: early detection saves lives page 5: Know the warning signs page 7: The power of philanthropy
KnoWing your maKe-up — The BRCA1 gene, pictured above, is one of several genetic risk factors for breast cancer. Making sure you take the proper steps for genetic risk assessment can be a daunting task. Getting a good picture of your family’s DNA can help. Photo Wikipedia commons
In the genes When determining the risk factors for family members after a diagnosis, consensus can be hard to find By Heather Bailey Staff Writer When my youngest sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 30s, it shook my family deeply and required some soul searching. But soon enough, it would also require some gene searching. Early tests revealed that my sister did
not carry the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene; the genes that have been shown to have significant risk increases for both breast and ovarian cancers, and led actress Angelina Jolie to undergo a pre-emptive double mastectomy and hysterectomy. However, several months into her treatment, my sister returned from an appointment with her doctors at Stanford Medical Center and said they had told her that we should consider genetic testing as a family. In fact, her oncologist felt that myself, my other sister and our mother should be considered at “significant increased” risk for cancer. In large part this was because my sister was so young when she got diagnosed. But, it was also because my
mother’s mother had had breast cancer, my mother’s sister had died from it, and my mother’s niece had also had it. There seemed to be a concerning family link, even if the “most famous” genetic link wasn’t present. However, in consultation with our own doctors and in doing our own research, we found the research into familial links outside of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to be woefully small, and to find that the knowledge level of an average doctor to vary wildly. In fact, we often were given conflicting information both about the usefulness of genetic testing and the degree of increased risk the rest of us might be facing.
See genes, page 6
october 10, 2019