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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Chapter 7Decoding Your Test Results THE WAIT IS OVER. You’ve wondered, worried, and anxiously anticipated your test results. Now you’re about to find out whether you’re indeed at high risk…
