Each year, more than 192,000 American women learn they have breast cancer. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of these women have a hereditary form of the disease. Alterations or mutations in certain genes make some women more susceptible to developing breast and other types of cancer.
We are each born with two copies of about 100,000 different genes. One copy comes from your mother and one from your father. The BRCA gene (short for breast cancer) normally plays a role in preventing breast and ovarian cancer; however, if you are born with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation inherited from either your mother or your father, you are more susceptible to these two cancers.
I had blood drawn to determine if I have the gene mutation which would make me more susceptible to breast cancer again in the same ta (one ta of my "ta-ta's) or a newly developed cancer in the other ta, or elsewhere in my body. My appointment with the Geneticist is April 18th. The BRCA 1 & 2 analysis will provide some additional information and help guide my treatment by indicating whether more aggressive actions are necessary now to improve my quality of life for the rest of my life.
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