Was there a history of breast cancer in your family?

MyTurnNow
MyTurnNow Member Posts: 2,686 Member
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
I was the first in my family to be dx with bc. I was actually quite shocked when dx'd because my mom had no less than 5-6 biopsies for fibro cystic (sp?) breasts. Like my onc told my sister, you didn't have to worry about bc yesterday but you do today. I am curious as to how many other pink sisters are the first in their family?
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Comments

  • heidijez
    heidijez Member Posts: 441
    #2
    first in my family. . .
    and the only one (thus far)
  • chenheart
    chenheart Member Posts: 5,159 Member
    #3
    I too am the trendsetter in
    I too am the trendsetter in my family~ no history of BC before me, either. Wow, what an honor, huh? I have decided to be completely selfish with this particular Beast: I have no intentions of sharing this with any of my siblings, male or female! As one of 6 kids, I always wondered what it would be like to be an only child. This is my shot at being the only child to get BC, and I am tenatiously holding on to it! It's mine and you can't have it!!! So there!

    Hugs,
    Chen♥
  • Hope 2010
    Hope 2010 Member Posts: 62
    #4
    I'm the first also
    I honestly didn't think I would get bc only because there's no one on my mom's nor dad's side that had it. That's probably why I didn't do my monthly breast exams as often as I should have because I didn't think I could get it. How wrong I was... Now I'm letting everyone know about it because it can happen to anyone.
  • carkris
    carkris Member Posts: 4,553 Member
    #5
    Hope 2010 said:

    I'm the first also
    I honestly didn't think I would get bc only because there's no one on my mom's nor dad's side that had it. That's probably why I didn't do my monthly breast exams as often as I should have because I didn't think I could get it. How wrong I was... Now I'm letting everyone know about it because it can happen to anyone.

    I am the first, 5 years
    I am the first, 5 years later or so my mom got it stg 0. My gene test was negative. I do have a line on my dad's side that I think jumped to me from some gene undetected. I dont know them well enough to ask them if they have had genetic testing. it would be helpful to know.
  • crselby
    crselby Member Posts: 441 Member
    #6
    Mom's side or Dad's?
    I am the first, but, sadly, don't expect to be the last. (My niece started her periods last year at age ll and wears a bra already, in 6th grade. I take that as a bad sign.) Anyway, Mom and Grandma had fibrocystic breasts as do I but no one ever had even a biopsy. However, my mother was dx-ed with a bone marrow cancer at age 57 and was dead by age 63. Grandma was dx-ed with colon cancer at age 56 and was dead by age 59. I was dx-ed with breast cancer (DCIS) at age 57..... and I'm going to take after the women on my FATHER'S side of the family!!!!!
    ~~Connie~~
  • 2Floridiansisters
    2Floridiansisters Member Posts: 384 Member
    #7
    crselby said:

    Mom's side or Dad's?
    I am the first, but, sadly, don't expect to be the last. (My niece started her periods last year at age ll and wears a bra already, in 6th grade. I take that as a bad sign.) Anyway, Mom and Grandma had fibrocystic breasts as do I but no one ever had even a biopsy. However, my mother was dx-ed with a bone marrow cancer at age 57 and was dead by age 63. Grandma was dx-ed with colon cancer at age 56 and was dead by age 59. I was dx-ed with breast cancer (DCIS) at age 57..... and I'm going to take after the women on my FATHER'S side of the family!!!!!
    ~~Connie~~

    I'm the 2nd and hope I'm the last.
    I'm the youngest of 4 girls, the 3rd daughter born got it and it took her life. Now I'm on a mission to have my 2 oldest sisters get their mamograms no matter how much they might not like them.

    Hope2010, that's a beautiful cat photo you have there!
  • Christine Louise
    Christine Louise Member Posts: 426 Member
    #8
    Family history but no BRCA
    My mother, her sister and their grandmother all had bc at age 50. I have bc at age 56.

    I felt like a ticking time bomb my whole adult life and I did whatever I could to prevent bc. Thank goodness I got yearly mammograms. Last year I was clear; this year, bc.

    Mom tested negative for BRCA 1 and 2 genetic mutations. It seems obvious that there is a genetic basis to our cancers, but modern testing cannot detect our particular mutation.

    I intend to have my ovaries and uterus out anyway. (Plus, my cancer was estrogen positive.) My oncologist still wants me to have the BRCA test, so I may someday. At any rate, my 16-year old daughter will begin self exams and mammograms earlier than she otherwise would.
  • GregStahl
    GregStahl Member Posts: 188
    #9
    Wifes history
    Famiily (both sides) has a long history of cancer and heart problems. She has high BP and now this. Unfortunatly, everyone in her family that has beed diagnosed has not survived past a year. Her aunt was dx in Nov, in the hospital now and wont be leaving....but all of them put off or refused treatment and my wife has done the same by dealying surgery 2 months.
  • Ritzy
    Ritzy Member Posts: 4,381 Member
    #10
    GregStahl said:

    Wifes history
    Famiily (both sides) has a long history of cancer and heart problems. She has high BP and now this. Unfortunatly, everyone in her family that has beed diagnosed has not survived past a year. Her aunt was dx in Nov, in the hospital now and wont be leaving....but all of them put off or refused treatment and my wife has done the same by dealying surgery 2 months.

    No history of bc in my
    No history of bc in my family. From the stats now, it seems that it is equal of the women that get it, some have a history in their family, and, the same amount don't. Not sure if that is true or not.

    Sue :)
  • BethInAz
    BethInAz Member Posts: 203 Member
    #11
    First in my family
    My mom had prophylactic mastectomy after years of surgeries for benign cysts. My older sister remembers a count of 14 surgeries! Mom's doctor back in the day said that his wife had the same type of breasts and ended up getting cancer so Mom did what she thought was right - total removal of the threat. My sister is adopted and I have no blood aunts so there was no family history... which is why the insurance company denied my breast MRI as a diagnostic tool - until a needle biopsy found the cancer. Then the MRI was approved and so the journey began... My daughters are now on target for being vigilant with self-exams and will get their baseline mammo at 35.
    Beth
  • greyhoundluvr
    greyhoundluvr Member Posts: 402
    #12
    My Mother
    Had her first BC diagnosed at 40, had a mastectomy on that side, then developed a second cancer in her other breast 3 years later with metastasis. She was deceased at 45. My sister had bilateral prophylactic mastectomies in her 20's. Somehow, being the youngest and living in another city, I missed the sense of urgency or maybe I just had the young person's delusion that bad things couldn't happen to me. I was diagnosed at 56 - my sister and I are both BRCA neg so like everyone else, the onc has said there probably is a genetric link, just not the BRCA one.
  • cavediver
    cavediver Member Posts: 607
    #13
    first in family
    no family history, I was first dx at 63
  • BunnyJane
    BunnyJane Member Posts: 213
    #14
    cavediver said:

    first in family
    no family history, I was first dx at 63

    Lots of BC in family
    My Grandmother and three of her sisters had BC. My Aunt and Mother had ovarian ca.
    I tested negative for BRCA1/2.
  • RE
    RE Member Posts: 4,591 Member
    #15
    Fourth
    I am the fourth, an aunt had it in 68, then my mom, sister and me. My sister had the gene testing and she was a carrier.

    Rena
  • Marcia527
    Marcia527 Member Posts: 2,729
    #16
    I thought I was the first
    I thought I was the first but later found I had a cousin who had BC. I have a sister who was diagnosed 6 years after me. She had the gene test and it was negative.

    This is why we need to be open about having BC. If you hide the fact that you've had it then someone else in the family will think they are the first. I wasn't keeping in touch with cousins.

    P.S. My mom had ovarian cancer. I guess that is related. I almost forgot. Had another sister with uterine cancer.
  • Rague
    Rague Member Posts: 3,653 Member
    #17
    No history
    For me, there is no history of any form of cancer in my family for at least 4 generations. But that isn't surprising as from everything I've found - IBC has no basis in genetics.

    I've been around/involved with chemicals of varing types all my life that are known to be at least somewhat carcenagens (sp?). I grew up on USAF bases and have lived the last 35 years near or under flightlines of USN and USAF bases. I lived in the west when 'dirty' nuclear testing was being done in the early 1950's, I was a hairdresser for 10+ yrs. I did screen printing for several years. Our water supply here consistantly fails tests. So many possibilities or combiations of possibilities.

    As far as I know, Hubby's Mother was the only one in his family with cancer. She died when he was 9 from cervical cancer - they had lived in the Love Canal subdivision.
  • CR1954
    CR1954 Member Posts: 1,390 Member
    #18
    I am.............
    I am the first in my family.........dx'd at age 54.

    CR
  • Cindy Ann
    Cindy Ann Member Posts: 101
    #19
    Breast CA in Family
    I am the second in my whole family.It is a huge family. My Mom was the 1st. Right breast at 70.She had a split tumor. Half estrogen and prog + the other half negative. No lymph node involvement but had them all out. No re-occurance. Did not test for Braca. I have it in the same breast but DCIS. Caught it early. Scary thing is my mom went every year for Mammograms. In one year her's grew to the size of a lemon and lay flat on the chest wall. Had she skipped a year she would not be here. She turns 80 in August. I have done BRACA. Waiting on results. May have to give up my 1st born(r breast.)Lumpectomy if neg braca. Praying for a negative. I agree with Chen I don't want to share my BC with anyone else in my family. I'll go one step further I am being stingy and greedy it's all mine peroid.. My daughter already tested for the variance of Braca. She is under close watch. I told her she can't have it either. Tired of her borrowing my stuff.She can go in my closet and jewelry box but not my cancer crappers box. She cannot borrow or have this..
  • 24242
    24242 Member Posts: 1,398 Member
    #20
    I am second
    I was diagnosed more than 25 years younger than my paternal grandmother was at time of her diangosis in the early 60's her treatment surgery and cobalt. I watched my grandmothers cancer free years which were more than 10 and then a new battle with more lumps in the other armpit and bone cancer and lost her fight in less than a year after that diagnosis.

    Now that another lump grew quickly in my arm went back to cancer clinic hoping for early dx if need one. I find out there that I am triple negative something they did not know of 14 years ago they could only tell if positive or negative.

    Now 14 years later doing hereditary testing since the odds or so high for my son getting the very same disease. Way higher than mine was then. After going through family history every great aunt I had on father's side died of cancer though in 70's and one died at early age. I am waiting to hear back since they have family information. Imagine I now meet that criteria for testing 14 years later.

    My understanding is genetics play less than 5% for the aggressive form of breast cancer I had.
    Tara
  • roseann4
    roseann4 Member Posts: 992 Member
    #21
    24242 said:

    I am second
    I was diagnosed more than 25 years younger than my paternal grandmother was at time of her diangosis in the early 60's her treatment surgery and cobalt. I watched my grandmothers cancer free years which were more than 10 and then a new battle with more lumps in the other armpit and bone cancer and lost her fight in less than a year after that diagnosis.

    Now that another lump grew quickly in my arm went back to cancer clinic hoping for early dx if need one. I find out there that I am triple negative something they did not know of 14 years ago they could only tell if positive or negative.

    Now 14 years later doing hereditary testing since the odds or so high for my son getting the very same disease. Way higher than mine was then. After going through family history every great aunt I had on father's side died of cancer though in 70's and one died at early age. I am waiting to hear back since they have family information. Imagine I now meet that criteria for testing 14 years later.

    My understanding is genetics play less than 5% for the aggressive form of breast cancer I had.
    Tara

    Yes, but post-menopause.
    My Grandmother and Great Aunt on my mom's side had it and my Aunt on my dad's side had it. All were over 60. I was 58.

    Roseann

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