a question....

christielee, if your mom is a carrier, then each of you has a 50/50 chance of of being a mutation carrier. Definitely get your mammo. Also, you should see a Certified Genetics Counselor. They can give you the best info. Do not get tested with a nurse or oncologist or pcp-they are not the experts in this field.

It is a bit overwhelming to find you are a carrier-I know b/c I found out only 1 year ago. My mom was also the only one w/ BC. You should check out www.facingourrisk.org which is devoted to hereditary cancer. You will find plenty of help and info there. Good luck!!

Elaine, not everyone who has the BRCA mutation gets breast cancer.  Depending on whether one carries the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, and depending on the particular mutation, the risk can range from as low as 25% to as high as 80%.  So it's possible that a mother carries the mutation and inherited it from her mother, but her mother may never have been diagnosed with BC.  And since each child has a 50% chance of inheriting this gene from an affected parent, even if the mother has several siblings, it's possible that none of them inherited the gene or that if they did, they too were lucky and never developed breast cancer.  Another factor that can muddy the picture is if there are few women in a family, or if some of the women died young.  This why genetic counsellors look at much more than your immediate family to determine if there's a likelihood that the gene might be present.  Parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins all need to be considered.  And breast cancer is not the only cancer that might indicate that the BRCA gene is present.  Ovarian cancer and prostate cancer could also be signs.  Even stomach, pancreatic and colon cancers might be indicators.   So while usually you'll find several cases of breast cancer in a family where the BRCA mutation is present, it's very possible for the mutation to be in a family and yet there is no obvious history of breast cancer.

Elaine, perhaps her mother got it from HER father, making the waters even muddier. Personally, I never expected to be positive b/c it seemed to me(and to my previous ob/gyn) that the cancers were unrelated, except for my mother and sister, who had BC and OVCA respectively. But MANY males died of stomach cancer, and my younger sister of melanoma.

But the fact is, her mother HAS tested positive, giving christielee a 50% chance of having it. She may or may not ever get cancer, but that is the nasty part about it all-we just don't know for certain. Decisions are a little harder when we factor in this ambiguity.

Also, remember that the 50% is for each individual. It does not mean 50% of a family will get the mutation. Many families have several girls and only 1 tests +, while in others ALL the girls(or girls and guys) test +.