Chapter 11Reconstruction New Breasts after Mastectomy RECONSTRUCTION AFTER MASTECTOMY replaces the volume and shape of your breasts. In the hands of a gifted plastic surgeon, reconstruction isn’t just an operation,…
Chapter 17How BRCA Affects Men LIKE WOMEN, MEN CAN INHERIT BRCA MUTATIONS from either parent. And when they do, like women, they face an increased lifetime risk of certain cancers…
Chapter 12Oophorectomy and Other Risk-Reducing Gynecologic Surgeries IF YOU DEVELOP OVARIAN CANCER, your treatment will involve oophorectomy, surgery to remove your ovaries. If you have a BRCA mutation, the most…
Chapter 10Mastectomy for Risk Reduction and Treatment MASTECTOMY (surgically removing the breasts) is sometimes the wisest course of treatment. Unilateral mastectomy removes one breast; bilateral mastectomy removes both. Although aggressive…
Chapter 19Putting the Pieces Together to Make Difficult Decisions You climb a mountain, edging slowly upwards. Rock by rock, step by step, one at a time. From one point to…
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…
Chapter 18Diagnosis Hereditary Cancer JUST TWO GENERATIONS AGO, cancers were rarely discovered until they were well advanced, almost always with dismal outcome. There is still much we don’t know, but…
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…
