Knowledge is power – and these BRCA test results can save lives

We talk about BRCA a lot in the Jewish community, but I speak to many people who still don’t fully understand what it means. We always want to know why we get illnesses – essentially what causes them. Doctors talk about genetics and environmental causes. An environmental cause is usually something from outside your body that you are not born with.

For example, you might knock your head and develop a headache, or you can get skin cancer from sun exposure. Genetic causes are different: you are born with this tendency in the DNA or genes you inherit from your parents – we might call this a gene mutation, a variant or an abnormal gene. Many diseases have both environmental and genetic causes, even in the same person. With the sun exposure you might also have a faulty gene that makes you more likely to get the skin cancer. If we know what causes an illness, it helps to prevent and treat it.

BRCA can be a genetic cause of cancers. Every one of us, men and women, has a BRCA 1 and a BRCA 2 gene. They are actually normal genes that protect our cells from developing cancer, but when they are abnormal, this goes wrong. So, if you have an abnormal or BRCA gene variant, you have a higher chance of getting cancer. Often people inherit this from a parent. But genes can also change (mutate) spontaneously, so some people have BRCA mutations and are the only one in their family. If you have an abnormal BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene, you are at higher risk of developing breast cancer particularly, but also ovarian cancer, and, to a lesser degree, pancreatic. If you are a man with a BRCA2 gene, it causes a higher-than-average risk of prostate cancer and male breast cancer. It’s important to know that you can inherit a BRCA variant from either parent. People sometimes think because it is associated with breast cancer, it must be from your mum, but that isn’t the case: it’s just as likely from your dad.

So, why does this matter to Jewish people? It is not uncommon to see diseases run in certain communities. Again, that can be for genetic and environmental reasons. An environmental reason might be because an ethnic group may all eat certain traditional foods which cause or protect from certain illnesses.