Preventing Cancer Can Be a Family Affair: Ali’s Story
Between my parents, my daughter and me, you could say preventing cancer is a family affair.
It started with my dad, Max. When I was a child, he found out he was a carrier of the BRCA1 genetic mutation, which increases the risk for a number of cancers, but is best known for the high increase in risk it causes for breast and ovarian cancers. It’s important to keep in mind that men can also be carriers of the gene, and it is also linked to cancers that affect men, including prostate and pancreatic. In fact, my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years after I tested positive for the mutation. He has been cancer free for more than ten years.
The decision of when and how to tell me that I might have inherited the mutation weighed heavily on my mom Rebecca and him. They decided to do so when I was a junior in college. Like my parents, I like taking action as soon as possible to eliminate uncertainty. (I have a feeling most of the cancer prevention community is like this, too.) So I saw a genetic counselor and got tested right away. It wasn’t much of a surprise when I found out that I, too, carried the BRCA1 mutation.
