Cancer Patient Says Question Could Save Lives: 'Do You Have Eastern European Jewish Ancestry?'

https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2019/08/21/cancer-patient-brca-ashkenazi-jew

August 21, 2019
Carey Goldberg

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an influential federal panel's new recommendations on BRCA gene mutations, which convey an unusually high risk of cancer. The panel says that Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry — meaning Jewish forebears from Eastern Europe — is enough to consider genetic testing for BRCA mutations, even without a known family history of cancer.

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Ashkenazi Jews have a one-in-40 chance of carrying the high-risk BRCA mutations. That's roughly 10 times higher than the general population.

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There are also high-risk groups beyond Ashkenazi Jews, says Dr. Judy Garber, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber. They include some French Canadians, "and many populations in the world have small groups who have an increased risk. Some Caribbean populations also can be included in that list."

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