Ya know... most people would simply live with the risk until something developed one way or the other, before they took this kind of drastic action. She should talk to a therapist, particularly one well versed in cancer issues, before making a final decision. This is serious alteration to the body, and could cause long term health issues given the early onset menopausal side effects. That and its bat-shiat craziness...

There's a high probability that if your family has had a history of Breast Cancer, you are at high risk for developing it as well. The strange thing about cancer is that there are rarely if any symptoms. Symptoms if any, are usually so common like cranks & aches that most of us just shrug off. Many people with cancer don't find out until they are in the late stages...like your cousin. There's an easy way to get around this though. If you're a high probability, which you are.. get tested every 6 months. There are 4 stages of cancer, the 1st-2nd stage of cancer is usually easily curable. At this stage the cancer is located in one area of body. (kidney, lungs, breast) If you wait too long, the cancer will penetrate into the lymphatic system and spread to other organs. This is the 3rd and 4th stage cancer, you're most likely have to chop off the cancerous organ... or die.

If i were you i would get checked up ASAP and do so every 6 months.

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer last August. They caught it very early and she is fine now. I looked into the whole "remove your breasts" options and found out that if you are going to get cancer and you remove your breasts, most likely the cancer will form in the next possible place in that area... the lungs. I am glad I didn't go through with any of that as my mother was tested and the cancer was not genetic. And in case you are wondering, her sister, mother and neice have all had breast cancer. You just never know what is going to happen, but like the poster above states, just get tested often if you are in a high risk group and your survival rate chances are much higher.

It's easy for me to say, but I think she's over-reacting.

She is *definitely* going to lose so much if she does this; whereas she is only *possibly* going to get cancer - and what's more, gene therapy is coming on in leaps and bounds. She needs to consider that sooner or later, she will be able to have that gene *replaced*. That technology is going to come much sooner than that required to regenerate organs.

first off, only a very small percentage of cancer is caused solely by genetics. Something in the 3% range. The rest is caused by lifestyle. If you want to know how to prevent stuff like that, read "The China Study." It quite clearly lays out the connections between Diet and cancer.

*sigh* My sister in law is on about this. She wants to have a BRCA test done on herself and her husband to try to determine if her daughter (my 7 year old neice) may have the gene. There is so much information about this test - it's not quite as straightforward as it may seem. Your cousin, unfortunately, is not the first person I've heard of electing for this type of radical surgery. What kind of fear drives a person to this choice of surgical butchery? More information about the test? Go here: http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/Breast-Cancer-BRCA-Gene-Test

Unfortunately, every single comment here is actually incorrect. Factually incorrect! Testing positive for BRCA is not at all like having cancer and there's no way to "test for cancer" every 6 months. I am a frequent visitor of your blog and it's weird that we now have something in common. I tested positive for the BRCA2 gene when I was 24 (5 years ago now). Honestly, if you or your cousin (or anyone else on here, Athena), please, please contact me. If you're making serious surgical/preventive measures, please seek out advice from others in your position.
xoxox,
Sara

Gene find offers hope to breast cancer victims

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 12/04/2007

A "gang of four" genes is responsible for the lethal spread of breast cancer, according to a study published today that provides new insight into how to treat the disease more effectively.

Along with a second study published today which reveals the patients most likely to benefit from low doses of chemotherapy, and thus be spared side effects, the work provides a vivid glimpse of the huge impact that genetics will make on cancer treatment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2007/04/12/ngenes12.xml
The studies point to a future where patients are subjected to tumour gene tests to make chemotherapy more effective and less of an ordeal. It also offers the hope of treatments that can curb the spread of the disease throughout the body, the cause of most cancer deaths.
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A team in New York with researchers now working at the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona and the Institute for Research in Biomedecine in Spain, reports in the journal Nature a set of four key genes in human breast cancer cells that play a role in metastasis, the spread of the cancer, to the lungs.

A number of genes are already known to contribute to the spread to the lungs. But Prof Joan Massagué and colleagues at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, New York, now show how four co-operate to promote the formation of new tumour blood vessels, the release of cancer cells into the bloodstream, and the penetration of tumour cells from the bloodstream into the lung.

The gene set comprises EREG, MMP1, MMP2 and Cox2 and the abnormal activation of all four enables the breast cancer to invade the lungs. Although shutting off these genes individually can slow cancer growth and metastasis, the researchers found that turning off all four had a dramatic effect.

Prof Massagué said: "The remarkable thing was that while silencing these genes individually was effective, silencing the quartet nearly completely eliminated tumour growth and spread."

In experiments on human breast tumours implanted in mice, the researchers also found that they could reduce the growth and spread of the disease by simultaneously targeting two of the proteins produced by these genes, using drugs already on the market. "We found that the combination of these two inhibitory drugs was effective, even though the drugs individually were not very effective," said Prof Massagué. "This really nailed the case that if we can inactivate these genes in concert, it will affect metastasis."

The researchers now want to test combination therapy with the drugs - cetuximab (trade name Erbitux) and celecoxib (Celebrex) - to treat breast cancer metastasis.

The other two genes are matrix metalloproteinases (MMP1 and MMP2) that participate in the formation of new blood vessels. Although there are efforts to find drugs to inhibit them, none is in clinical use "owing to toxicities due to the large number of MMPs that function normally in our bodies and that the existing inhibitors may be acting on", said Prof Massagué.

His team is now studying the genes that enable breast cancer to spread to other parts of the body, such as the bone.

A second study published in Nature, shows that scientists in Texas have isolated 87 genes that seem to affect how sensitive human cancer cells are to certain chemotherapy drugs.

The study highlights a new way to screen for alterations in cancer cells that make them specifically sensitive to treatments, so that they may leave normal tissue relatively unharmed.

As if no one knew we would eventually die????? There is not single one of us who will live forever. Why then do such irrational thing? Has anyone ever asked why is this happening now? Is there our way of living responsible for this? Not just genes.
Imagine that!!! Preventive hysterectomy. It's like preventive war. What do you solve with that. What if eventually they discover another deadly gene in hers genetic record? Maybe amputation is in order?

Oh that's horrible. I hope she gets thru it ok.

Oh that's horrible. I hope she gets thru it ok.

i hope everything will be fine!

Really sorry to hear that. Breast cancer seems like a pretty big issue for all woman, I only say that as breast cancer research receives so much money and it's always getting attention, even at safeway supermarkets you can donate at the checkout.

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proactive mastectomy?!??!?!? is she on psychoactive drugs?!?! WTF!?!?!

outrageous. outrageous, wrong, ignorant, and ridiculous.
no
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no

A single genetic marker, and she's off cutting her tits off??? WTF.. seriously... W....T....F.!?

BTW: BRCA1 and BRCA2 and TP53 hit men with equal frequency. Dudes die of breast cancer every day.

as a guy i couldnt understand eh? At least there is a test for that gene. There is nothing for prostate cancer which....wait for it...wait for it...kills more men than breat cancer does women (and men). it also receives one-third the public funding and a pittance in private funding compared to the pink ribbon brigade. I'm sorry you had to receive that call and it must be a terrifying experience but I'd take breast cancer, which I can get, any day over prostate cancer as my odds of survival are much higher and I have a pretty good shot of finding it early if im proactive.

Sorry to read that.

A friend of mine struggle with cancer for 1 year, enduring really strong chemio (he was a really hard-core sportsman, which was really lucky because they could really go hard on him with it). He turned out OK but just 2 weeks ago they discovered a new lump in his neck. Completely different cancer case. That's just so unfair.

Anyway I hope your cousin too.

And about the fact that men cannot know that feeling... well not for breast cancer. But we have the prostate one. I guess we get a draw.

Great Blog!

I cam back to check on this but there's nothing new. To show that there's hope, however, my friend doesn't have a cancer and his suspicious lump was just caused by a minor infection.

And Aitch is right: men get breast cancer. And actually there's a really sad state of affairs lately, with the media and medical associations catching up with breast cancer coverage (which, it's true, used to be badly neglected) but now a similar lack of interest for breast cancer and prostate cancer amongst men.

Its a nice blog!
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Its a nice blog!
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I hope all works out well for your cousin

Sorry about that!