Red Flags That Indicate The Breast Cancer Gene
By: Dr. Monica Rocco
Family history, including both maternal and paternal sides, is the most important piece of information that can help a health-care provider determine whether a person is at significant risk for carrying a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene mutation (BrCa 1+2 or Breast (Br) Cancer (Ca) 1+2 genes, are genes which can be mutated and passed on between generations).
Other red flags that indicate increased risk are history of breast cancer before age 50, ovarian cancer at any age, male breast cancer, breast cancer in both breasts, breast and ovarian cancer in same patient, family history of BRCA mutation, Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, and breast cancer after age 50 to a lesser degree.
I often get asked why Jewish ancestry is associated with increased risk of carrying a BRCA mutation. The original mutations were identified in this group of women on the East Coast when they migrated from Europe many years ago.
Most (more than 50 percent) breast cancers are sporadic, which means they occur by chance alone without a family history. Another 20 percent are familial, which means that breast cancer runs in the family, but if the family is genetically tested, there will be no abnormal DNA. Only 10 to 15 percent of breast cancer is hereditary, which means there is a DNA abnormality that is being passed on from generation to generation that is the cause of the cancer. Of this 10 to 15 percent, BRCA makes up the majority of the mutations known to cause breast cancer and the one most widely tested for.
A recent study at City of Hope showed that a patient who develops breast cancer before the age of 50 and has no family history of breast or ovarian cancer has as high as 13 percent chance of carrying a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 mutation.
Read more: Santa Maria Times
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