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.
Didn't know that. Thanks for enlightening me/us.
Thanks.... I am 36 from a pretty high risk gene pool.... I have looked into it ~just~ a little. ;~D
Right. Maybe we should screen the whole population and not allow those people with bad genes to breed. Maybe we could also line up all the woman at age 20 with family histories of breast cancer and then remove their breasts in an assembly line fashion. It would be more efficient and effective and lower their risks.
Ping
I don't know. But such tests must not have factored in unknowable but substantial chance of major breakthroughs in cancer treatment over the next 10-20 years. Age 22 is way too young to consider this.
I am not saying it is hers, but just perhaps, being alive to raise any children she might have seems more vital to her than her breasts were. They ain't legs or kidneys, after all.
Simply for the sake of discussion--let's say your genetic markers indicate you have 90% chance of developing penis cancer with the same mortality rate as breast cancer. What would you do?
You left out her genetic marker.
Breast cancer,even when caught early,can and often does escape,to be found later in other body parts.The survival rate,for breast cancer,isn't significantly better than it was 30 years ago.OTOH,many other cancers'survival rates have gone through the roof.And what many men don't know,is that they too can get breast cancer.
The radical mastectomy on noncancerous tissue,preemptive course has been around for a while now;however,not long enough to be proven efficacious...or not.And there are no stats on whether or not,after having this procedure done,the women escaped getting another form of cancer.
I hope this answers your questions.Do feel free to Freepmail me,if you want more info,or just to talk about this.
No. If they were too BIG, I know of a PROCEDURE that would help them. Or at least help me sleep better at night, Any ways, has anybody read Dr Lorraine Day?
Breast Cancer is common. I wouldn't go for the mastectomy just yet. The diagnosis of breast cancer today amounts to a year of surgery, radiation and chemo, followed by high quality of life, and most importantly, retention of the breasts. It's no longer a death sentence preceded by a life in dread while mutilated and deformed.
Apparently you have miss the studies posted above.
Medical experts beg otherwise.
Ok. What is the survival rate for this particularly aggressive cancer?
I agree that treatment has come along way, chances today are much better than they were fifteen years ago when my mom had it. And she survived that, but not the other cancers that followed. I would argue that with reconstruction being pretty good, She'll not feel mutilated or deformed.... she can now have a fabulous set put in. ;~D
Maybe you haven't seen breast reconstruction these days.
You want to talk about high risk? Check this out. The paternal line: My dad: malignant melanoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (he's doing OK-age 70). My aunt: breast cancer (she's doing fine). My uncle: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (died, age 50-something). My grandfather: metastasized colon cancer (died-age 70). One of his brothers: Leukemia (died-age 60-something). One of his brothers' grandson's: bone cancer (died-age 30-something). My grandmother: breast cancer (survived--she now in a nursing home and her mind is gone-age 80). My grandmother's brother: "eat up" with some sort of cancer (died-age-late 70's). His son: liver cancer (died-age 50-something). My grandmother's sister: Lung cancer (died, age 70-something-oddly enough, she's the only one of this group who never smoked and wouldn't let her husband smoke in the house). Another of my grandmother's sisters: brain tumor (still living-in her late 80's). And that's just the ones I know about off the top of my head. On my mom's side it's all strokes and high blood pressure and type II diabetes, even though they live to a pretty good age (70's and upper 80's).
When it comes to genes I'm screwed up one side and down the other, so I may as well just live my life (and get yearly mammograms and physicals and wear sunscreen).
I don't fault this 22 year old for doing this, though. It's extreme, but she's the one who has to live without her breasts, hopefully until she's 90.
I don't mean to laugh at your family's history of cancer but "screwed up one side and down the other" the way you put it was funny. Again, I don't mean to be tacky but you made me laugh.
I can't beat that, but only because my family started out smaller. Lets just hope they keep making headway on this cancer thing.
And until then, lets not set you up to marry my brother... ;~D
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