An Uplifting Project

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer during her life is about 1 in 8. Ashkenazi Jews have an even higher incidence of breast cancer than the general population. But breast cancer is no longer an automatic death sentence. With early diagnosis and new treatments, there are now more than 2.8 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

The recent recommendations based on a population-based study published in Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences urge all Jewish women of Ashkenazi descent to be tested for mutations on the BRCA 1 and 2 genes that are associated with a higher risk of breast cancer. Leading oncologist Prof. Tamar Peretz, Interim Director General of Hadassah Medical Organization and Director of Hadassah’s Sharett Institute of Oncology in Israel, rejects universal testing:

“Jewish women without a family history of breast and ovarian cancer should not feel pressured to undergo the BRCA test for breast and ovarian cancer. The implications of the BRCA test are complex. Many women will get results without being able to discuss them with a qualified clinician. I fear that without using discretion in administering this test, and without coupling it with genetic counseling by an experienced health professional, the search for BRCA gene mutations can harm more lives than it saves.”

“As for the recommendation by certain scientists that Jewish Ashkenazi women be tested by age 30, we know that many Jewish women aren’t married by age 30, and if they are, few have completed their childbearing years. Prophylactic removal of a woman’s ovaries and breasts can have a devastating impact on her life. We have not yet determined that the psychological burden of knowing outweighs the risk of discovering this gene later.”

“Jewish women without family histories should make use of other examination modalities, in addition to avoiding obesity and heavy drinking, two factors linked with breast cancer.”

Hadassah Medical Organization was the first to conduct the BRCA tests on Jewish women, along with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in 1995, confirming that postulated prevalence of the gene mutation in the Ashkenazi community, which includes approximately three million women living in the United States. In all, one in forty Jewish women and men carry a mutation on one of the BRCA genes, as compared to one in 345 men and women in the general population.

Hadassah has a new initiative called the Uplift Project: Supporting Breast Cancer from A to DD. People submit decorated bras. Learn more about it: The Uplift Project