My mother was diagnosed at 29 and died age 38, I was diagnosed at 46. I have two adult daughters and they've been advised to request referral to the family history screening clinic - the GP can refer them. We're waiting to see if I'm going to be offered the gene test and if I am positive I suspect they'll be tested too. It's a worry isn't it - I'm more worried about my daughters possibly getting it than I am about myself :(
Hello and thank you for posting. I am sorry to hear about you and your family's breast cancer diagnosis.
When cancer is in the family, people often assume that this greatly increases their risk of developing it, but this isn't always true. Although the genes we inherit may influence our risk, other things do as well. No one is risk-free and the risk of breast cancer increases for all women as we get older.
Breast cancer risks and causes are explained on our website. You will see that a family history can increase the risk of breast cancer but not necessarily by very much. This can depend on how close the affected relatives were and how young they were when they developed the cancer. Breast cancer is common anyway, 1 in 7 women develop breast cancer over their lifetime, but mostly at an older age (above 50).
So, we all carry some degree of ‘population' risk. In the UK, routine breast screening starts from 50 for most of us although there is a study asking some women from the age of 47. Some women whose risk is above average can begin screening sooner, but this would depend on the situation.
The first step is to find out if your daughter's breast cancer risk is above average enough to justify screening. Your daughter's GP can help them to do this. They need to find out if anyone else on either side of your family has a history of breast or other cancers and if so, how old they were when they developed it. Depending on the family history the GP can refer them to a breast clinic for a risk assessment or tell them that their risk is much the same as average.
