Cancer is a genetic disease

Cancer is a genetic disease.
When actress Angelina Jolie went non-exclusive about her prophylactic deceitful mastectomy, it did not intimation to an increased understanding of the genetic risk of soul cancer, researchers say. Although it raised awareness of boob cancer, exposure to Jolie's myth may have resulted in greater confusion about the association between a family history of breast cancer and increased cancer risk, according to the study, published Dec 19, 2013 in the magazine Genetics in Medicine hghster.men. Earlier this year, Jolie revealed that she had both breasts removed after wisdom that she carried a alteration in a gene called BRCA1 that is linked to titty and ovarian cancers.

Women with mutations in that gene and the BRCA2 gene have a five times higher danger of bust cancer and a 10 to 30 times higher jeopardize of developing ovarian cancer than those without the mutations. For the study, researchers surveyed more than 2500 Americans. About 75 percent were knowing of Jolie's story, the investigators found tablet. But fewer than 10 percent of the respondents could correctly suit questions about the BRCA gene variation that Jolie carries and the characteristic woman's endanger of developing tit cancer.

So "Ms Jolie's robustness epic was prominently featured throughout the media and was a befall to activate constitution communicators and educators to demonstrate about the nuanced issues around genetic testing, imperil and preventive surgery," study produce author Dina Borzekowski, a research professor in the University of Maryland School of Public Health's subdivision of behavior and community health, said in a university announcement release more help. However, it "feels relish it was a missed opening to educate the purchasers about a complex but rare health situation".

About half of the get a bird's eye view of respondents incorrectly thought that a be deficient in of family history of cancer was associated with a let than average personal risk. Among rank and file who had at least one close relative develop cancer, those who knew about Jolie's undergo were less likely than those heedless of her story to estimate their own cancer peril as higher than average, 39 percent versus 59 percent. That's a concern, another researcher said.

And "Since many more women without a kinsfolk curriculum vitae commence breast cancer each year than those with, it is signal that women don't feel falsely reassured by a gainsaying family history," learn co-author Dr Debra Roter, commandant of the Center for Genomic Literacy and Communication at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in the rumour release. The researchers also found that 57 percent of women who knew about Jolie's romance said they would have nearly the same surgery if they knew they had a defective BRCA gene.

Nearly three-quarters of women and men in the investigation felt Jolie did the unhesitatingly detail by going public about her experience. Cases of bosom cancer linked to a BRCA gene deviant are extremely rare. In the United States, a woman's hazard of ever getting breast cancer if she does not have a BRCA modifying is between 5 percent and 15 percent village. While celebrities can aide put together awareness of health issues by sharing their own experiences, it's substantial to help the celebrated understand and use the information about diagnosis and treatment contained in these stories, the researchers concluded.