Genetic Inheritance

Breast cancer didn't change my perspective but only added to the frustration at the relatively low number of genes that have been discovered o date. So far there have been five cancers among the four of us in my family - two brothers, my sister and myself. My brother has now just experienced his third primary cancer. Obviously my family's cancer experience is out of the realm of BRAC 1 & 2 and touches on genes not yet discovered.

I was aware of the breast cancer genetic variations before I was diagnosed from a researcher I worked with at a science/technology center. But I had hoped that --- between the time of diagnosis and now --- there would be further discoveries to help me make sense of my experience. And that hasn't happened. Yet.

My mother was determined to be BRCA2 positive after her cancer diagnosis, so I knew I was at risk for being positive as well. While in the process of deciding if I wanted to be tested for the mutation, I was diagnosed with breast cancer myself. My oncologist highly recommended the test to determine my treatment path. This added a few weeks to the "waiting" time before my surgery, but knowing the outcome of the test was critical for determining my treatment plan. Of course, I did indeed also test postitive for the BRCA2 gene mutation. I also blog about BRCA at www.nancyspoint.com