Breast Cancer Risk Lasts a Lifetime for Sisters

I read in a US News & World Report article today that women whose sisters were diagnosed with breast cancer face an increased risk of breast cancer throughout their lives regardless of their sister’s age at diagnosis.

I have two sisters, so I was particularly interested in this one. I did a quick look at the Science Daily article on the same topic …

“Sisters of women diagnosed with breast cancer still have an increased risk of breast cancer 20 years after diagnosis of the sister, suggesting that women live with the burden of familial breast cancer for their lifetime,” the authors write.

Forget simply relying on BRCA1 or BRCA2 test results — the risk is there even in the absence of an abnormality in these two genes. If you have a sister, please pass this along to her.

The question is … do your sisters take their breast health and their increased risk seriously?

(Image: Newscom)