Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer: Who Needs It and What the Results Mean
Hearing that breast cancer might run in your family can bring up a lot of questions. You might wonder whether you inherited a gene that increases your risk whether your children could inherit it or whether you should have genetic testing at all. Well Genetic testing for breast cancer , can provide a useful information for the situation. But it is not a test that just tells you whether you have breast cancer today. Instead it looks for inherited changes in genes that can increase the risk of developing a breast cancer. What is genetic testing for breast cancer? Genetic testing looks for inherited changes also called variants in specific genes that might increase a person's risk of certain cancers. You might have heard about BRCA1 and BRCA2. These are the best known genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. It is important to understand what the test is actually looking for before signing up for Breast cancer awareness campaigns . Why does genetic testing matter? Ac...