/Health
GOOD NEWS
Link Found Between
Breast, Ovary Cancer
for women
BURTON S. BRODSKY, M.D.
has joined
Alan Bolton, M.D.
in his Berkley Obstetrics and Gynecology practice
Offering a full range of health care services
for women of all ages:
adolescent gynecology
family planning
infertility treatment
comprehensive obstetrical care
cancer screening, such as Pap smears and
breast exams
• treatment for PMS, endometriosis
and menopause
• gynecological surgery
•
•
•
•
•
You can feel comfortable because Drs. Bolton
and Brodsky are backed by Beaumont's
comprehensive services, including high-risk
obstetrics; an NICU and cancer specialists.
To accommodate your busy lifestyle, evening
appointments are available. They also accept
most major insurance plans.
Call today for an appointment!
(248) 542-7141
28903 Woodward Ave., Berkley
(just south of 12 Mile Rd.)
BURTON S.
BRODSKY, M.D.
• Graduate of
Wayne State
University's
School of
Medicine
• Obstetrics and
Gynecology
residency at
Beaumont,
Royal Oak
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DETROIT
JEWISH NEWS
DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN
Special to The Jewish News
new study has found that
women who develop breast
cancer because of a particu-
ar genetic mutation are 10
times more likely to also develop
ovarian cancer than are breast cancer
victims without the DNA defect.
The genetic mutations that can
lead to breast cancer are more fre-
quently found among Jewish women
of Ashkenazi descent than among the
general population.
The benefit of the new information,
according to an executive at the genetic
testing laboratory that underwrote the
study, is that women who know they
have a hereditary link to breast cancer
can be carefully screened for indica-
tions of ovarian cancer, which is par-
ticularly deadly and difficult to
detect in its early stages:
An estimated 10 percent of
breast-cancer cases are believed to
be linked to heredity. The causes of
the other 90 percent are thought to
be environmental, related to expo-
sure to certain hormones and
linked to diet and exercise.
Among American women in
general, very few — just 2 percent
— develop breast cancer before age
50. But between one-third and
.
one-half of all women with a
genetic mutation — Jews and non-
Jews — will develop the disease
before she turns 50.
By age 70, about 12 percent of
women without the mutation, and
between 56 and 87 percent of
women with the mutation, get
breast cancer, recent studies have
shown.
A small percentage of women with
the genetic mutation that predisposes
them to get breast cancer — 10 percent
— are Jews of Ashkenazi descent,
meaning their ancestors came from
Central or Eastern Europe.
But since Jews account for just
about 2 percent of the American pop-
ulation, this disproportionate finding
prompted alarm when the cancer-
causing mutations on BRCA1 and
BRCA2 were first identified about
two years ago.
The purpose of the latest study
was to find out which features of
family history best predict mutations
BRCA1 and BRCA2.
Debra Nussbaum Cohen is a
reporter for the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency.
Determining the risk of ovarian
'-4
cancer was not the study's primary
purpose, but the link quickly became
apparent from the data, according to
Dr. Tom Frank, medical director for
Myriad Genetic Laboratories.
Myriad spent some $570,000 to
conduct the analysis involved in the
study. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah,
Myriad is the only firm that currently
offers the test for breast-cancer muta-
tions commercially.
The link between genetic mutation
and ovarian cancer was discovered by
researchers from a dozen of the coun-
try's leading medical institutions —
including the Sloan-Kettering Insti-
tute for Cancer Research in New York
and the Anderson Cancer Center in
Houston — who worked cooperative-
ly with Myriad on the project.
The study examined 238 women
with breast or ovarian cancer, or
both, whose family histories showed a
strong likelihood of genetic mutation.
Researchers found that women
who had breast cancer but no genetic
mutation developed ovarian cancer at
the rate of under 2 in 1,000 women
in the general population, which is
about the same rate as that of women
who have never had breast cancer,
Frank said.
But with a genetic mutation, the
incidence of ovarian cancer rose to
over a 1 in 100 chance.
About 186,000 American women
are diagnosed with breast cancer each
year, and 44,000 women will die of
the disease in the same period. By con-
trast, some 26,000 women are diag-
nosed with ovarian cancer each year