Posted on 07/01/2004 6:28:06 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
A young woman whose mother had her healthy breasts removed after it was found that she carried hereditary cancer genes is to undergo the same operation.
Becky Measures, 22, said she will have a double mastectomy after tests showed that she had a 90 per cent chance of contracting the disease in later life.
Her mother, Wendy Watson, became one of the first women in Britain to have a double mastectomy on healthy breasts.
The decision by Miss Measures, who works as a DJ on Peak 107 FM in Chesterfield, Derbys, is thought to be the first case of a daughter undergoing the same operation as her mother.
She said: "My mother had a double mastectomy 11 years ago although she hadn't got breast cancer and genetic tests at that time were in their infancy.
"It has been a major part of family life since I was very young. My grandmother and great grandmother died from breast cancer. At 22 it was a hard decision to make but I have grown up with it and I have just got to get on with it. My chances of catching breast cancer are minimal at the moment but as time goes on it would get more worrying.
"Before it gets to that stage it is better to get it out of the way. My boyfriend, family and friends are very supportive and it helps that my mum went through with the operation at 38."
She added: "Other family members have contracted breast cancer in their 30s and 40s so I have this large support network and the doctors have been fantastic. The surgeons carry out wonderful breast reconstruction jobs at the same time as the operation and their work is unbelievable.
"I have a lot to live for. This is my way of giving myself a future. A lot of women do not have the opportunity. I see it as a privilege."
Mrs Watson, 49, from Bakewell, Derbys, said: "When I had my double mastectomy it wasn't even recognised that breast cancer could be hereditary.
"When I discovered that nine family members had suffered breast cancer I went to my GP and asked what could be done.
"I had this awful feeling I was waiting to get breast cancer and hoping I had caught it in time."
After her operation, Mrs Watson set up the Genesis Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline for women.
She has recently sat on a panel for the National Institute for Clinical Excellence developing guidelines for women at high risk of breast cancer.
Junk Science Alert!
What kind of tests showed that she had a 90% chance of getting breast cancer?
Knowing what she did about her family history, another option would have been extremely close monitoring hoping that she fell into the 10% chance that she wouldn't get it. Not sure about prophylactic mastectomy. Probably best to get the advice of several surgeons.
With drastic medical advances being made almost DAILY, I would think this to be a rather EXTREME anecdote.......
I may get diabetes and lose my legs so I may as well cut them off now and be done with it.
I have a friend who has thought about doing the same thing. Her mother also had breast cancer. My sister-in-law's mother is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer, so I worry about my sister-in-law and my niece if they will get it.
How many women die of incurable breast cancer at very young ages? Is this article even for real?
This is a dangerous precedent.
If I were her, I probably would have waited until she was done having children so that she could breast feed them.
Also, the longer you breast feed helps reduce your chance of getting breast cancer.
There is an important difference - metastasis.
While one would have to think long and hard about a voluntary double mastectomy, if the markers are for cancers that metastisize rapidly, it makes sense.
By the way in the interim she had a benign tumor on her hearing nerve at the brain stem the size of an apple. But we never considered cutting off her head to spite her tumor. :-}
I remember the house doctor on one of the morning shows several years ago mentioned something like "If a woman has 12 children and breast feeds them all, her chance of getting breast cancer are about zero."
Survival rates for breast cancer in pre-menopausal women are significantly lower than for those who develop breast cancer post menopause. If you have to face breast cancer at any point in life, you definitely don't want to get it as a young woman.
All the same, I think I'd opt for very close monitoring rather than have my breasts removed prophylatically, but I can also understand her decision. What a horrible prospect to face.
Her name is Miss Measures?
This has to be a joke.
I wonder if she had the originals simultaneously replaced with a set of bolt-ons?
Imagine being 22 having bilateral mastectomies and using prostheses and dating.
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