Question Please!

Deirdre1

Does anyone know of research with the results for the family of origin.. in other words if you father had bc and he had several children does anyone know of research designed specifically for those individual children that might show their odds?  My surgeons errored on the side of caution since there was so little information available about the daughter (me) of a man (my father) after he had fully invasive ER+ bc.. So 3 of my bs suggested mastectomy and only one wanted to do a lumpectomy and it was primarly because they didn't know what it meant for a child (female or male) of a man who had and died from ER+ invasave bc..  Thanks for any info on the subject - I'm more concerned for my own children but the fact that their grandfather died of bc will impact their lives as well  (by the way I was BRCA - so I assumed that they would encourage lump for my DCIS stage 2 and/or3. 

Leah_S

Deirdre, I don't know the answer to your question. However, I think you should be treated as any other child of a bc patient without a BRCA gene mutation. I don't think the fact that it's your father who had it and not your mother should make a difference on that.

Best of luck.

Leah

Deirdre1

Hi - Leah, I agree unfortunately the doc's didn't.. and I only wised up AFTER my treatment so I'm now short a few breasts - at least I didn't agree with them on their recommendations of having my ovaries and uterus removed!!!  But I was hoping that perhaps someone knew of any newer research...  Thanks though!

Larry44

It seems to me that the question you need to be asking is "are there any genetic markers in my body which would indicate a high risk of getting breast cancer?". I think I read that they have discovered some genetic markers in addition to BRCA1 and BRCA2. Just because someone has breast cancer, that does not mean that the genetic anomalies have been passed along to the person's children. I've never read that the BRCA1 and 2 abnomal genes are sex linked, that is men can have the abnormal genes too.

Another thought is for you to go to a NCI Comprehensive Cancer Care Center for a second opinion. That is assuming that you live in the USA.

Deirdre1

Thanks Larry, but actually the BRCA tests WERE linked to women for a very long time - I had to convince my insurance carrier that they should pay for the test (they eventually did).. thankfully they (BRCA genes) are no longer thought to be only relative to the female population..  I was under the impression that medical sciens was just now starting to investigate a connection to breast cancer through other genes but no real definative results yet (I'll do another search and see if I can get info there - thanks!) ..  I do live in the US and did contact the NCI and saddly they were less informed about male breast cancer than my primary care physician and he admitted having "very little knowledge" of male breast cancer.   I was hoping that since my dx was more than 3 years ago there might be new results - for my kids sake!  But I imagine it's such a small population (males with bc) that the funding for research just isn't there!    Well if anyone hears of any research I'd appreciate the heads up!  Thanks!

CandDsMom

interesting topic.  My BC came through the paternal side too.  Paternal aunt - dx at 28 back in 1984 with late stage BC from the get go.  Pat grandmother - refused screenings and ended up dying in her late 80s from alzheimers.  But - 3 of her sisters had BC and one had BC + ovarian CA.  So something is going on although my father himself is healthy and has been fine.

I saw the genetic counselor (my NCI center onc got me enrolled in an ovarian cancer screening program and genetic counseling is part of it) - they did the BRCA (-) and also the BART testing for BRCA translocations (picks up another 5% BRCA mutations) as well as p-53 gene mutation testing for Li-Fraumeni syndrome... p53 was negative for me, still waiting on BART test.  Hope I can hold onto my ovaries!

chrissyb

I am the first one on my Mothers side to get BC but my Fathers sister died from BC about ten years ago.  I am assuming that I also carry the mutation through my father.

makingway

I read a while back that only a percentage of the BRCA tests actually look at ALL the gene markers we assume they do.