Cancer is a genetic disease

Cancer is a genetic disease.
When actress Angelina Jolie went supporters about her counteractant double mastectomy, it did not place to an increased understanding of the genetic risk of knocker cancer, researchers say. Although it raised awareness of bust cancer, exposure to Jolie's story may have resulted in greater mixing up about the link between a family history of breast cancer and increased cancer risk, according to the study, published Dec 19, 2013 in the minute-book Genetics in Medicine learn more. Earlier this year, Jolie revealed that she had both breasts removed after lore that she carried a mutant in a gene called BRCA1 that is linked to boob and ovarian cancers.

Women with mutations in that gene and the BRCA2 gene have a five times higher jeopardize of soul cancer and a 10 to 30 times higher imperil of developing ovarian cancer than those without the mutations. For the study, researchers surveyed more than 2500 Americans. About 75 percent were enlightened of Jolie's story, the investigators found. But fewer than 10 percent of the respondents could correctly declaration questions about the BRCA gene transmuting that Jolie carries and the normal woman's hazard of developing breast cancer.

So "Ms Jolie's haleness story was prominently featured throughout the media and was a chance to ready health communicators and educators to teach about the nuanced issues around genetic testing, jeopardy and preventive surgery," study possibility author Dina Borzekowski, a research professor in the University of Maryland School of Public Health's area of behavior and community health, said in a university rumour release. However, it "feels as if it was a missed opportunity to educate the public about a complex but unique health situation".

About half of the survey respondents incorrectly brown study that a lack of family history of cancer was associated with a belittle than average personal risk. Among people who had at least one complete relative develop cancer, those who knew about Jolie's experience were less apposite than those unaware of her story to estimate their own cancer danger as higher than average, 39 percent versus 59 percent. That's a concern, another researcher said.

And "Since many more women without a pedigree telling develop breast cancer each year than those with, it is weighty that women don't feel falsely reassured by a unresponsive family history," study co-author Dr Debra Roter, the man of the Center for Genomic Literacy and Communication at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in the dirt release. The researchers also found that 57 percent of women who knew about Jolie's fish story said they would have alike surgery if they knew they had a defective BRCA gene.

Nearly three-quarters of women and men in the view felt Jolie did the right thing by going public about her experience. Cases of mamma cancer linked to a BRCA gene transformation are extremely rare. In the United States, a woman's endanger of ever getting breast cancer if she does not have a BRCA mutation is between 5 percent and 15 percent homeopathic. While celebrities can balm create awareness of health issues by sharing their own experiences, it's impressive to help the public understand and use the information about diagnosis and remedying contained in these stories, the researchers concluded.