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| Forum | Questions | Ask a Question | |
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Concerns about Breast Cancer Family History Questions on genetics, family history & breast cancer. |
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| Asked | Publicly Submitted Question | ||
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| 2/1/2011 | My 29-yr old wife is a BRCA1 carrier, her mother is not but had breast cancer at 38. Her sister, a BRCA1 carrier, had breast cancer at 31. My wife recently had a fibroadenoma. In isolation, this does not increase her risk of breast cancer. However, in conjunction with her family history, does this increase her risk of cancer? | ||
| Replied | JHU's Breast Center Reply | ||
| 2/1/2011 | Being BRCA positive trumps the diagnosis of this benign mass. If however the biopsy had shown LCIS or Atypical cells then it would increase her already genetically known risk a little higher. It's important to have a thoughtful discussion together about what steps if any she wants to pursue to reduce this high risk due to the genetic factor. With her sister having been diagnosed young, the concern would be that she might too... so time to visit with a genetics counselor and talk about options and how each option can reduce risk to a certain degree, from taking tamoxifen to doing bilateral mastectomies with reconstruction. important to pay attention to ovarian cancer risk as well. | ||
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