Cancer is a genetic disease

Cancer is a genetic disease.
When actress Angelina Jolie went followers about her vaccine spit and image mastectomy, it did not engender to an increased understanding of the genetic risk of heart of hearts cancer, researchers say. Although it raised awareness of teat cancer, exposure to Jolie's contention may have resulted in greater confusion about the tie between a family history of breast cancer and increased cancer risk, according to the study, published Dec 19, 2013 in the roll Genetics in Medicine androgel. Earlier this year, Jolie revealed that she had both breasts removed after erudition that she carried a modification in a gene called BRCA1 that is linked to heart and ovarian cancers.

Women with mutations in that gene and the BRCA2 gene have a five times higher hazard of bosom cancer and a 10 to 30 times higher peril of developing ovarian cancer than those without the mutations. For the study, researchers surveyed more than 2500 Americans. About 75 percent were cognizant of Jolie's story, the investigators found herbalism. But fewer than 10 percent of the respondents could correctly meet questions about the BRCA gene deviation that Jolie carries and the representative woman's endanger of developing core cancer.

So "Ms Jolie's fettle alibi was prominently featured throughout the media and was a endanger to assemble fitness communicators and educators to inculcate about the nuanced issues around genetic testing, gamble and preventive surgery," study prima donna author Dina Borzekowski, a research professor in the University of Maryland School of Public Health's jurisdiction of behavior and community health, said in a university item release whosphil.com. However, it "feels relish it was a missed break to educate the civic about a complex but rare health situation".

About half of the enquiry respondents incorrectly thought that a paucity of family history of cancer was associated with a humble than average personal risk. Among subjects who had at least one close relative develop cancer, those who knew about Jolie's sustain were less likely than those heedless of her story to estimate their own cancer jeopardy as higher than average, 39 percent versus 59 percent. That's a concern, another researcher said.

And "Since many more women without a set yesterday promote breast cancer each year than those with, it is noted that women don't feel falsely reassured by a contradictory family history," swotting co-author Dr Debra Roter, chief honcho of the Center for Genomic Literacy and Communication at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in the bulletin release. The researchers also found that 57 percent of women who knew about Jolie's dispatch said they would have alike surgery if they knew they had a bad BRCA gene.

Nearly three-quarters of women and men in the look into felt Jolie did the settle fetich by going public about her experience. Cases of chest cancer linked to a BRCA gene transfiguring are extremely rare. In the United States, a woman's imperil of ever getting breast cancer if she does not have a BRCA anomaly is between 5 percent and 15 percent dewytree. While celebrities can facilitate initiate awareness of health issues by sharing their own experiences, it's consequential to help the clear understand and use the information about diagnosis and treatment contained in these stories, the researchers concluded.