Consider screening for BRCA more regularly

When I talk to my patients, one of the greatest concerns I hear is regarding the fear that they might get a cancer at some point in their life. It is a very reasonable fear, as cancers of the female reproductive tract and breasts are not as rare as we might like. Perhaps educated by Angelina Jolie’s announcement of her BRCA mutation in 2013, many women now ask me about BRCA testing. In the past, I referred to genetic counseling for this, but more recently I have become more educated on exactly who qualifies for testing, and send quite a few BRCA tests out of my office myself. Across the board, somewhere between 1 in 8 and 1 in 10 women will get breast cancer over the course of their life, if they live to an age of 85 years old. Fortunately, cure rates are high because we have many screening methodologies that are quite effective at finding it before it has spread widely, allowing for relatively straightforward treatments that are usually curative. These screenings include typical mammography, as well as high-risk screening methodologies like breast MRI. Ovarian cancer is far less common than breast cancer, affecting about 1 out of every 100 women, though it is also far more deadly. While breast cancer is usually caught early enough to be cured, ovarian cancer is usually found when it is already at an advanced stage, and even with treatment significantly shortens the life of women affected by it. We have investigated various strategies to screen for ovarian cancer, including...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Conditions OB/GYN Source Type: blogs