Breast and Ovarian Cancer Basics
Chapter 1Breast and Ovarian Cancer Basics FROM A STRICTLY SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE, women have breasts to feed their babies. Yet, for most of us, our breasts are much more than milk-producing…
Sharing Information with Friends, Family, and Coworkers
Chapter 15Sharing Information with Friends, Family, and Coworkers ALTHOUGH ISSUES RELATED to hereditary predisposition are deeply personal, the decisions you make may affect others. Sharing with loved ones along the…
A Peek Inside: Your Genes at Work
Chapter 2A Peek Inside Your Genes at Work FEW AREAS OF SCIENCE HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD of medicine more in the past fifty years than genetics, the study of hereditary…
Young and at High Risk
Chapter 16Young and at High Risk ANYONE DEALING WITH HEREDITARY CANCER ISSUES has special concerns and challenges, no matter what her age. If you’re a young woman, you face additional…
Defining Risk
Chapter 3Defining Risk DO YOU WORRY about getting malaria? Probably not if you live in the United States, where our risk of that disease is slim. But like many women,…
Early Detection Strategies
Chapter 8Early Detection Strategies THE NEXT BEST THING TO PREVENTING CANCER is catching it early, when it’s more likely to be cured. That’s why surveillance is so important. It doesn’t…
Hereditary Cancer: What’s Swimming in Your Gene Pool?
Chapter 4Hereditary Cancer What’s Swimming in Your Gene Pool? MUCH OF YOUR APPEARANCE results from traits you inherit from your parents. You can thank them for your cute dimples, stubby…
Managing Lifestyle Choices
Chapter 14Managing Lifestyle Choices WE CAN’T NEGATE THE FACT THAT AGE, inherited predisposition, and other factors beyond our control increase cancer risk. But cancers don’t develop overnight. Carcinogenesis, the multistep…
Dealing with Menopause and Quality-of-Life Issues
Chapter 13Dealing with Menopause and Quality-of-Life Issues OUR OVARIES PRODUCE about 90 percent of the estrogen, progesterone, and other reproductive hormones that keep our bones strong, provide some protection from…
Chemoprevention
Chapter 9Chemoprevention IF YOU’RE CONSIDERING OPTIONS to reduce your cancer risk, you have two choices: chemoprevention, as described in this chapter, and surgery (chapters 10 and 12). Taking chemoprevention medications…
