how many here have to NO BC in family?

I am the only one with BC in my family...but not a lot of close relative females. Just, me, my mom, one living grandmother (one grandma passed away in 1993), and one brother. I recently found out I have a parternal aunt I had no idea existed, but have no information about her.

My maternal grandfather died of colon cancer in 1983 around 73 yrs of age. My paternal grandfather died maybe 8-10 years ago. Cancer was susptected but his dementia was so extensive, it was decided that he would be better of to let pass away.

My father shot himself in the head in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Maternal Uncle died of diabetes and heart related problems in in the mid 2000s

in all breast cancers, it is said that only 5 - 15% of all breast cancers are hereditary, therefore, the majority of us will not have the brca 1 or 2 gene.  I have no family history and there are about 35 female 1st cousins on my moms side alone, and my mother was 1 of six sisters and I am the only one with bc. 

On another note though, all of her brothers and my mother died of cancer (5 so far) and one of her sisters has colon cancer.  My mother had malinoma, and it was head and neck cancer that got her.  Two brothers w/lung cancer, one bladder cancer, and one prostate that spread to his lungs.  All were farmers and the two with lung cancer were said to have 'farmers lungs".  I have a cousin and 2 brothers with Leukemia one of which also has small cell lymphoma, a brother who died of bladder cancer (his son has non hodgekins lymphoma0, a sister that had malonoma (her son has Embrionic Liver Cancer in Children (one of the less than 5% that survived, he is now 20 and was diagnosed at 8) , other sisters with squamish and basil cell skin cancers), and me with Cervical cancer at 21, breast cancer at 44, and metastatic bc at 52 and I have a son with Essential Thrombo Cytosis diagnosed at 24, but in going back through bloodwork, the bone marrow transplant team says he had it already at 13...  This will turn into a Leukemia eventually, it has a lifespan of 25 years and he is in at least year 14. 

So even if we do not have the brca 1 or 2, it has been suggested by my brothers oncologist as well as mine and my sons, that we most likely have a gene mutation that is lending us to these cancers.  In my case, they feel that the bc is a direct cause of HRT, and Estrogen Therapy, as well as numorous shots of progestrerone and estrogen from the time I was 15 for bleeding to the point of hemmoraging, as well as triple doses of birth control pills to try and stop bleeding.  back then the standard dose of birth control was .5, today it is .025.  Unfortunately, in a study that was released in Nov. 2010, they have found that HRT induced bc when it returns stage iv, is always terminal and does not respond well to chemo, which explains why my cancer has kept growing and spreading through 2 years of chemo.  I wish it was hereditary as the studies have shown that even though you are more likely to get it if you have the gene, brca 1 and 2 normally responds well to treatment!    But they feel the liver and blood cancers in one immediate family are most likely a direct link to  a gene mutation in our family.  My dads side, eight siblings and 2 parents, all but two died of cancer, one had a heart attact at 44 years old, one died of a stroke but also most likely had liver cancer. 

I do not believe that anyone is safe from cancer, we can cut our risks though through lifestyle, ie diet, environment, what we put in our bodies, but as long as we breathe we are all at risk just from breathing of taking in known carcenogins! 

I am happy your cancer is caught early , and you are doing well.

Actually what they needed to explain to you was 1% is not a low risk. actually it is a quiet high risk. That means from every 100 women they see one will have cancer. Considering all the women having mamogram, this will give huge amount of people with breast cancer

If your risk is over 1.6% you are really high risk and qualify for chemoprevention.

Tamoxiphen that is so scared causes endometrial cancer in 3 out of 1000 women making a risk of 0.3%, under age 50 risk of endometrial cancer is 2 in a 1000 making a risk of 0.2%. This is much lower than your breast cancer risk yet very much feared.

I think education is missing here about waht is high risk. Offcourse unless you are told everybody thinks 1% is a low risk. But it is not that is where education is missing.

on either side.  Linda

jamiegww said:

I'm the first.....

......and hopefully the last in my family!

HUGS!!!

Jamie

I agree!  I'm  the first, and I sure hope I'm the last!

disneyfan2008 said:

Honestly I am clueless what

Honestly I am clueless what those tests are!

 

Denise

Denise,

One has to have certain criteria to be tested and I believe it's expensive.

Here is a link to SGK who had that mutation as did her sister, Nancy, the CEO of the SGK Foundation.  

http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/GeneMutationsampGeneticTesting.html

Doris

No BC history in my family at all! I did BRCA test~came back negative for both. I hope I am taking one for the team for my family and it begins and ends here!

I had no relatives who have had breast cancer in my family, but 2 months after my diagnosis my mom was also diagnosed with breast cancer.