Is Breast and Ovarian Cancer hereditary? - Dr. Shruti Bajaj
Breast and ovarian cancers are common gynecological cancers seen in the urban population. The etiology of breast cancers is vast ranging from cancers and environmental factors, hormonal, and genetic does form an important vector to these group of cancers right from the more common and the well known as BRACA 1 and BRACA 2 to the other more cryptic genes. The spectrum of genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer is expanding by the day. Almost 5 to 10% of the breast cancers have a hereditary component attached to it while almost 25% of the ovarian cancers have a strong genetic component associated, which means if there is a family history of ovarian cancer or if there are multiple first or second degree relatives affected with breast cancer especially if the cancer is premenopausal in age, if there are multiple cancers on one side of the family, these are all red flags for which one should consider getting testing for a hereditary cancer susceptibility. What is the advantage? Why should we pick up these disorders? Having a genetic diagnosis for the breast and ovarian cancer has implication not just for the patients, but even for the unaffected family members. There is now data which says that the therapy that is targeted for ovarian cancer can be modulated depending on the type of genetic error that you are carrying and in the unaffected members by doing a timely surveillance, we can pick up the cancer at an earlier stage and thereafter offer them a risk reduction options and a longer disease free period.
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