did other family cancers affect your decision

helenap · May 2010

i am still leaning toward a mx... but I know people talk about their family history of breast cancer but what abiout other cancers. my oldest brother died of AIDS but had several cancers and my other brother died of mesthioloma related to abestos.. both of these are environmental but they are still cancer..

I am also leaning toward a mx because I am older and dont want to do more sugery later in the life. Also insurance. Right now I have great insurance as I retire Lord knows what is happening to medicare etc. and I am still afraid of the radiation eventhough there appears to be little complaints about it..

laurakay · May 2010

My mother died of bc, and my grandmother. It definitely affected my decision. I recently had the gene test, and it was negative, but that doesn't change the fact that I have gotten bc at exactly the age my mother did...and I had a bmx in the hope that, unlike them, I wouldn't die of it...I don't regret that part at all. I would say I'm a little disappointed that I don't feel 'safer' after all this, which is psychological, I know. I thought after the bmx I'd be feeling it was behind me, but I'm not at ease, yet. Still, if I'd not had a mx, who knows how worried I'd be...I think I'd have gotten there eventually, one way or another. But, I see you are <1cm, and I was 5! I don't think there's much relationship between the cancers you mention and your DCIS. Some say that lumpectomy with rads is actually the more aggressive treatment.

sweatyspice · May 2010

Perhaps. When I was a child I lived in an extended family situation which included my maternal grandmother. She was diagnosed with BC, had a very unpretty mastectomy, died. Mastectomy has always been my worst fear. I fought to keep my breast.

Mouser · May 2010

Cancer isn't one disease but many. Mesothelioma and AIDs-related cancers are *not* indicative of something in your family genetics, and really don't enter into the rational basis for a decision.... if these decions were purely rational, you would decide without reference to your brothers' cancers. But of course they aren't! Someone said that "the heart has reasons reason cannot understand", and so much of our decisions about treatment are like that.

I have a strong family history of breast cancer -- nothing else, just breast. All post menopausal, and no one has died from bc (not even the great aunt who had it around WW 1), so we're very low probability for BRCA. But i always assumed i would get bc eventually. I also assumed i would have a mx, just like everyone else in my family had done. I found i could not do it. I opted for lumpectomy and rads (in spite of a real horror of rads). But a year later, when more calcs were found by a digital mammo (not new - just not noticed before) i did have a mastectomy, even tho my onc did not think it was necessary.

All of which is the long way around to saying -- even tho i don't think your brothers' history *should* influence you, i do think you should do whatever you think is your best choice, for whatever reasons you heart and mind give you.

Beesie · May 2010

In my family there is a history of BC (on my Mum's side) and prostate cancer (on my Dad's side). There are also a number of other cancers - stomach, skin (lots of that), thyroid.... I tested negative for the BRCA gene but my sense is that there is a genetic link between all these different cases of cancer - probably something that's yet to be discovered.

I always suspected that I would get BC, and I did. I also suspect that I will get another type of cancer at some point in my life - certainly skin (I've already had pre-cancerous biopsies) and possibly something else. The way I look at it, I can't remove all my body parts that are at risk of disease. I had no choice but to have a single mastectomy - too much DCIS in a small breast - but I made a very conscious decision to not have a bilateral. The way I looked at it, I don't know if BC will be the next cancer that I get - so why remove a healthy breast?

So yes, my family history of cancer played a big role in my decision to not have a bilateral because I don't think for a minute that a bilateral would have freed me from the risk of cancer. That's probably a different way of looking at it, but that's what went through my mind as I made my decision.

Leah_S · May 2010

Even though I'm BRCA- I have a strong family history of bc, plus ovarian ca and colon ca. So I'm monitored with colonoscopies and will have an ooph and a prophy mast for the noncancer side. So, for me, those decisions were made solely on the basis of family history.

Leah

NotAgain2015 · May 2010

I have 2 sisters that have had breast cancer, one surviving and one not. Another sister had an unusual bone cancer at 50 - caught early, she's fine. My father had lung cancer. I thought surely I was doomed because of my sisters and had been expecting it. I have no kids, etc.

But, I met with a geneticist and she discounted my father's lung cancer - saying it was situational. She said the cancers in my family are all within my generation and therefore 'random'. I am still getting tested for BRCA, but she thinks I have a small chance of having it. She also mentioned that in families with cancer genes - the cancers tend to crop up early, prior to 40 and multiple versions of cancer can be common.

I was so scared because of my family history - I have been seriously thinking of double mx to be over and done with it. But after meeting with the geneticist, I'm leaning back towards lumpectomy and rads - even though I am scared of the rads, its my left breast and I have asthma (heart & lung impact??). I meet with the radiologist onc this Friday.

I did find out that both of my sisters had IDC (invasive) and I have DCIS. So that gives me a little hope as well. I'm so thankful mine was found so early. I still haven't made a final decision. The other thing that weighs heavily on me is that once you have rads it is harder to have successful mx and reconstruction.

Still in the learning phase....

Anonymous · May 2010

The way that my surgical oncologist explained it to me is that uterine, cervical, ovarian and some breast cancers are estrogen fed. If you have any of these cancers in your family then you are at a higher risk of getting an estrogen fed cancer. So let's say your Mom had uterine cancer you have a higher risk of also getting uterine cancer as well as all the others. Some have said, also, that taking birth control pills with estrogen, can also put you at a higher risk of getting any of these cancers but I don't believe that has been proven for sure.

Deirdre1 · May 2010

Having just this weekend lost another member of the family (only 16) to a different cancer and a father that died of breast cancer I would say certainly yes other family member's cancers did help to make my decision. More to the point it help my doctor's with their decision, which of course I leaned on (after doing a lot of research). What I found out about our large Irish family was that even when someone might die from liver or throat or bone cancer the original source may never have been recognized until it had metastised to those other areas. So with older members of the family who died of cancer it is very important to take every cancer seriously.

wyldblumusic · May 2010

I did not make my decision (lumpectory and rads, so far) based on my family history. Many women in my family have had and survived breast cancer. Because of this family history, I was under some pressure to have a BMX.

I couldn't do it. I was NOT (and still am not) mentally prepared for that option.

Listen to your intuition. Do what feels right for you.

speech529 · May 2010

This is a great questions and I read all of the responses.

I have a strong family history of cancer--mother died of ovarian cancer at age 71; two aunts with BC and 3 uncles with 5 different cancers! My dad had prostate, sister had plasmacytoma, brother had skin. I am BRCA negative; geneticist thinks my family may have a different gene mutation related to colon cancer.

I have DCIS and will have a lumpectomy and a hysterectomy with removal of ovaries and tubes on June 2. I have a slightly prolapsed uterus which is causing problems, but I have wanted the ovaries out so this is the time to do it.

I am not ready for MX...I am taking it step by step. My pathology report will direct my next step--radiation, mx or nothing at all.

It's a tough decision to make all the way around. DCIS is not easy to figure out what to do and all choices are difficult. I want to get my treatment and put it behind me.

did other family cancers affect your decision

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