NARRATOR: Understanding your loved ones historical past of most cancers is essential for understanding your individual threat.
About 5 to 10 breast cancers out of 100 are due to a single gene and will run in your loved ones.
We get one set of genes from every of our dad and mom. These genes are like directions, telling our our bodies construct cells.
The genes mostly affected in hereditary breast most cancers are the breast most cancers 1 and breast most cancers 2 genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. Usually, these genes hold most cancers cells from rising.
However generally they mutate and don’t work correctly, which may result in most cancers.
Everybody has BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, however solely about 1 in each 400 folks in the USA has a mutation in both of those genes.
If both of your dad and mom has a BRCA gene mutation, you could have a 1 in 2 likelihood of getting the identical mutation.
Not everybody who has a BRCA gene mutation will get breast most cancers. However these mutations do enhance your threat, particularly of getting breast most cancers at a youthful age.
Different genetic mutations may also enhance your threat of breast most cancers, however they don’t appear to extend the chance as a lot as BRCA mutations.
Even in households with no identified genetic mutation, there should be a historical past of most cancers.
These circumstances could possibly be attributable to environmental components, comparable to publicity to chemical substances or a genetic mutation that hasn’t been found but.
If your loved ones has a historical past of breast or ovarian most cancers, you and your loved ones members usually tend to have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.
Having this data helps you perceive your possibilities of growing breast most cancers.
Some teams have the next threat for a BRCA gene mutation than others, comparable to Ashkenazi Jewish girls and Latinas .
A genetic counselor may help you determine what your loved ones historical past means in your private threat.
When you can’t change your genes, you possibly can decrease your threat of getting breast most cancers.
Way of life selections comparable to limiting alcohol consumption, sustaining a wholesome weight and exercising recurrently have all been proven to make a distinction.
Whereas speaking about breast most cancers with your loved ones will not be straightforward, it will be significant. The extra you recognize about your genetic historical past, the extra you are able to do to handle your threat.
This useful resource was created with assist from Merck.
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