Genetic Risks For Breast Cancer
with Dr. Lauri Seymour, internist with Advanced Healthcare
Perhaps it is because breast cancer is such a personal illness that so many women fear it. Yet it is hardly a woman’s most serious lifelong health concern. Heart disease is a far greater health issue.
According to National Cancer Institute statistics, the risk of breast cancer is relatively low when a woman is younger, about 1in 250 at age 30. However, by age 40 the risk is 1 in 70 and it continues to rise throughout life to 1 in 28 at age 60-70.
Dr. Lauri Seymour, an internist with Advanced Healthcare, said a woman’s total risk of getting breast cancer is 12% throughout her life, so on the average about 1 in 8 will get breast cancer at some time.
Genetic link
Recent studies have found, however, that for some women breast cancer has a genetic link that makes them far more susceptible to it. A woman who suspects this link may know that breast cancer appears to "run in her family." It is an unsettling thing and sometimes an unnecessary worry.
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A positive genetic test for BRCA1 (the "breast cancer gene") carries a sixty to eighty percent increased risk for breast cancer in both breasts, plus a twenty to forty percent overall risk of developing ovarian cancer in her lifetime.
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Because of this, physicians evaluating a woman’s risk for breast cancer place a far greater emphasis on the breast cancer appearing in a relation at an early age.
"In family history, development of cancer in a first degree relation (mother or sister) of premenopausal age is of particular concern," Dr. Seymour said. She said she is also concerned if a woman has "a number of first degree relations who have developed breast cancer at any age."
However, even if there is breast cancer in a woman’s family, a genetic link is very rare. "Only about five to 10 percent of cancers have a genetic implication," Dr. Seymour said.
To test or not to test
A genetic test is expensive and some insurance policies cover it, some don’t. Others require genetic counseling before a test is done. "This isn’t something that every woman should rush out and get, but women should be sure to discuss their risk factors with their physician."
Because a positive genetic test indicates an increase in both breast cancer and ovarian cancer risk, Dr. Seymour also recommends testing for ovarian cancer along with regular mammograms. Dr. Seymour advises some women at increased risk to take the drug tamoxifen as a means of reducing the risk of developing breast cancer.
She adds that a woman often thinks only of risks through her mother’s side of the family, "but paternal lineage is also important."
