Good News: I’m Average!

History mode:

Cancer, and specifically breast cancer, runs in the maternal side of my family. My mother (who came from a family of twelve siblings), three of her sisters, three of her brothers, both her parents, and one of my cousins all have been diagnosed with cancer. The good news is that only one brother and sister died of cancer. My grandparents died of old age, and my mother died probably due to the cancer treatments she received.

I’ve been very proactive about breast cancer screenings since the first aunt was diagnosed in the 1980s. I was diagnosed with Stage 0, or in situ, melanoma in September 1992, and I’m all clear after minor surgery to have the melanoma removed (it hadn’t even penetrated to the second layer of my epidermis). Because of my background, I went to the UW-Madison Hospital’s High Risk Breast Clinic over a year ago, and they suggested that my risk of one day being diagnosed with breast cancer was at least 25%, maybe more.

My maternal relatives have been participating in a University of Washington research study on the PALB2 gene, the partner and locater of BRCA2, the breast cancer gene. Some of my relatives, including my brother Tom, have PALB2. Earlier this year I sent in my bloodwork to the study and learned that I don’t have the PALB2 gene. /history mode

The Good News
Yesterday I went for my semi-annual clinical breast exam at the breast clinic. In the year since I’d been there, more research has discovered a higher link between PALB2 and BRCA2. If I had the gene, my risk for breast cancer diagnosis would have risen to about 70%. Because I don’t have the gene, my family history is ignored. My risk reduces to about 13%, the same amount for the average woman. As with the MRI giving me a negative impression (as in no cancer detected), I am glad to be average in this case. In fact, I am the first “graduate” of the breast cancer prevention program at UW Hospital. I only need the annual mammograms and clinical breast exam at my annual physical.

I am relieved, and I thank the God and Goddess for this wonderful blessing.

Pog ma thoin!
-Lori

“I have to go get my boobs felt up.” – me describing a breast exam