A WORLD OF BOOKS
What We Have from page 29
Meet the
Author
WHO: Amy Boesky
AGE: 51
GREW UP:
Bloomfield Hills
EDUCATION:
Graduate,
Birmingham
Seaholm High
School; Bachelor
of Arts, Harvard
College; Master
of Philosophy in Renaissance English, Oxford
University, England; Ph.D. in English, Harvard
University.
POSITION: Associate professor of English, Boston
College, primarily teaching 17th century British
literature and creative non-fiction.
OTHER TITLES: Author of books for children and
young adults – Planet Was, 1990, Little Brown; a
principal ghostwriter for Sweet Valley High series
for teenage girls and helped create the Beacon
Street Girls series.
FAMILY: Husband, Jacques; daughters Sacha, 18,
and Elisabeth (Libby), 16.
Amy Boesky will appear at 10 a.m. on Friday,
Nov.12, as part of the 59th Annual Jewish Book
Fair at the Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield. For more information, please visit
www.jccdet.org/bookfair.
Genetic Factors Increase
Risk Of Ovarian Cancer
Nationally, about 23,000 women each year devel-
op ovarian cancer.
The lifetime risk estimates for ovarian cancer
indicate that 14 out of 1,000 women in the general
population compared with 150-400 out of 1,000 in
the population that carries the genetic mutations
known as BRCA1 or BRCA2 will be diagnosed with
ovarian cancer.
The likelihood that breast and/or ovarian cancer
is associated with a harmful mutation in BRCA1 or
BRCA2 is highest in families with a history of mul-
tiple cases of breast cancer, cases of both breast
and ovarian cancer, one or more family members
with two primary cancers (original tumors that
develop at different sites in the body), or an
Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish background.
However, not every woman in such families car-
ries a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, and not
every cancer in such families is linked to a harm-
ful mutation in one of these genes. Furthermore,
not every woman who has a harmful BRCA1 or
BRCA2 mutation will develop breast and/or ovar-
ian cancer.
- Source: National Cancer Institute
30
October 28 • 2010
When she died, at age 58,
from an aggressive recurrence
of the breast cancer, the link
between hereditary breast
and ovarian cancer had not
yet been discovered.
That was announced a
few months later, when the
BRCA1 gene mutation was
discovered. The following
year, a second gene, BRCA2,
was also found to cause breast
and ovarian cancer. (See
related story)
"That was truly shocking
for me and for my sisters,"
Amy says. "I'm not sure why,
but we had derived a certain
comfort from believing that
what my mother had was dif-
ferent" from what had killed
our other relatives.
"But I do know that learn-
ing that the two cancers were
related was earth-shaking for
me ... I felt like the whole
world had shifted."
and controlled by a biotech
firm in Utah. That company,
Myriad, actually holds a
series of patents on me — or
at least this part of me. And
I'm not happy about it."
She isn't alone. A legal case,
ACLU v. Myriad Genetics, is
making its way through the
federal courts. In March, a
federal judge ruled against
Myriad, which is appealing
the decision.
She also writes on another
of her passions — the move-
ment to create a National
Cancer Previvors' Day,
recognizing those who are
survivors of a predisposition
to cancer, but haven't had the
disease.
As openly as she discusses
the issue now, Amy readily
A picture of Amy Boesky's mother, Elaine, as
a young girl, embraced by Amy's grandmother acknowledges that suscepti-
bility to ovarian cancer was
Sylvia. Both succumbed to inherited cancer.
a family secret. "We never
talked about it. It was in the
closet," she says.
Improving Their Odds
Over the five years since
Within the next few years,
she began writing the book,
having each had two children
hereditary breast and ovar-
— five girls and a boy — all
ian cancer (HBOC) has
three sisters had complete
become increasingly talked
hysterectomies and double
and written about. "It's much
mastectomies.
more open then it was:' she
"We were trying to improve
say, "but there's still a long
our odds. We were trying to
way to go.
make it through our 40s,"
The Boesky sisters, Sara, Amy and Julie, the
"I feel I have an educa-
Amy says.
summer after their mother's death
tional outreach mission. It's
Now, two are into their 50s
important to have women
and Sara, Amy's older sister,
who have the predisposition
has since tested negative for the gene mutation, which
know what we went through. We can use this knowl-
means her two daughters can't inherit it.
edge and educate our sons and daughters."
Of their two second cousins, one has tested positive,
so they know they "own" a broken gene.
'A Beautiful Story'
"So far, I've chosen not to have the test:' Amy says.
"I'm so proud of her:' says Dolly Katzenberg, who
"It's a murky, complicated genetic soup. We want clar-
taught Amy at Quarton Elementary School in
ity but it doesn't necessarily work that way:"
Birmingham. "She was a hard worker and a sweet,
Her sister, Julie, also has declined to be tested so far.
sweet kid — all the things that teachers want kids to
Amy is dismayed by the fact that one laboratory
be.
holds the patents for the gene mutations and is the
"I think she wrote a beautiful story': says
only source in the United States for the test, ruling out
Katzenberg, now retired and living in West Bloomfield.
second opinions.
"It was unbelievable to me that I didn't know any
"No way am I having them test me she says
of this': says Karen Rouff, a best friend through junior
emphatically.
high and high school.
It's a cause she has attacked on two fronts — as a
"Her writing is so vivid. I was crying. I didn't know
scholar and as a writer.
how emotional I would be says Rouff, a clinical
She is researching dilemmas surrounding gene pat-
social worker who lives with her family in Bloomfield
ents and their antecedents in the early history of mod-
Township.
ern science. And she is writing op-ed pieces for such
"I think she was very courageous to write if; she
media as the Boston Globe and the Huffington Post.
says. "It was very honest and a beautiful tribute to her
mother."
On The Attack
When What We Have was published in August by
"It turns out my body isn't completely mine she wrote Gotham Books, Amy says, it marked 17 years since
in the Huffington Post. "One of my genes — the one
Elaine Boesky died.
that's had the biggest impact on my life — is owned
"I miss my mother every day." E