/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 IF YOU'RE SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR FITNESS Let us help you be the best you can be with 1 on 1 training at our club. A patient friendly program designed just for you to help you reach your realistic fitness goals. Change your life by changing youi. lifestyle. Muscle therapy and nutritional consulting available. Call us today for a FREE consultation. • Nutritional Counseling M. INTERNATIONAL PHYSIQUE CHAMPION • TV Celebrity Anchor PETER NIELSEN'S • Muscle/Massage — Therapy 4119 Orchard Lake Rd. (at Pontiac Tr.), West Bloomfield ( • Visit our websitelwww..eternielsen.cory) Personal Training Club 7/17 1998 108 LINEntertainmen .„ Call The Sales Department (248) 354 7123 Ext. 209 - • Children's Fitness Programs • Free Consultation 248) 855-0345 Advertise in our new Entertainment Section! 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