Dad may be carrying the gene for Breast Cancer
As reported in the June 20,2007 Journal of the American Medical Association
The study looked at 306 women diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 50.
None of the patients in the study had a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.
Among the women with many female relatives, the incidence of the BRCA gene (linked to hereditary breast cancer) was 5%.
Among the women with few female relatives, the incidence of the BRCA gene was 14%. This suggests to the researchers that these women were unaware of their genetic mutation because they had so few female relatives.
1. The link to breast cancer will be missed if a woman with breast cancer has few sisters or aunts, making it appear that their is no link when the link is actually to the father's side of the family.
2. The link to the father's side of the family will be missed if the father has few female relatives to develop breast cancer.
3. Half of genetic breast cancers are inherited from a woman's father, not her mother.
4. When a woman develops breast cancer before age 50, she should have the blood test to screen for the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes because a woman who is positve for these genes has a 4 times greater risk for developing breast cancer in the other breast and a 10 times increased risk of developing ovarian cancer compared to women who do not carry these genes.
5. The writers make the case that, with the evidence that a woman with breast cancer could carry the BRCA genes without much genetic history of breast cancer, insurance companys should pay the cost of the test (~$3,000)