SCIENTISTS GET JEWISH WOMEN TO SPIT IN STUDY OF BRCA1 BRCA2 BREAST CANCER GENES AND A VIDEO ON THE RECOMMENDATION MRI FOR SOME BREAST CANCER SCREENING

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Scientists are going around the country getting Jewish women to spit and thus give DNA samples for a study of breast cancer. Spitting vs older blood tests for gene study. The breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are among the most famous and most studied of cancer genes. When they are mutated,i.e an alteration in the genetic sequence of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 they are associated with a heightened risk for a number of cancers. According to a recent newspaper article in the Forward , "For researchers looking at what have become known as the “Jewish breast cancer genes,” much of the last decade has been spent identifying women who have the gene mutations and finding medical procedures to battle the breast and ovarian cancers that result".



"BRCA1 and BRCA2, are about five times more likely to be defective, or mutated, in Ashkenazic Jews (Jews who have tended to live in Europe and North America vs Sephardic Jews) than in the general population. Until now, though, scientists have largely been in the dark about why some women with the mutation get cancer and why some do not, as well as how the cancer-causing process might be stopped".

Read About a Pap Smear for Breast Cancer



In 2007 the Cancer Society recommended that certain women with possible increased risk of breast cancer get an MRI scan of the breasts. See the video.

Video about Recommendation for MRI for Breast Cancer Click the Arrow









"One of the new studies that is looking for answers is the Jewish Women’s Breast and Ovarian Cancer Genetics Study, which launched in late September. The study, which is being run out of New York University, is working from the knowledge that some women who have a defective version of BRCA1 and BRCA2 live long lives without ever developing cancer...Now many of the same scientists are striking out in bold new directions, in search of the finer mechanics of how the gene causes cancer, and in some cases, looking at how the cancer might be prevented altogether..A research team is setting out across the country to collect DNA samples from thousands of older Jewish women".

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