Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk and Prevention
Understanding Your Risk
The Cancer Risk and Prevention Clinic can help you to reach a good understanding of your own risk of developing breast and other cancers. A realistic understanding may help you to better plan how you want to manage that risk.
You may have a predisposition to develop breast or ovarian cancer if:
- You have any of the strongest risk factors, an altered breast cancer gene or a biopsy showing particular findings;
- You have a parent, brother, sister, or child who has been diagnosed with breast and/or ovarian cancer, especially if they were younger than 50 when diagnosed;
- At least two of your other close relatives (grandparent, aunts, cousins) have had breast cancer before 50 or ovarian cancer at any age;
- You or any family member has had breast or ovarian cancer before menopause;
- You have had a pre-cancerous condition found on breast biopsy, such as Atypical Ductal or Lobular Hyperplasia, or Lobular Carcinoma In-Situ of the breast;
You or a family member has had a genetic test showing that you carry a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene; or
- Your family is known to have a hereditary cancer syndrome, such as Cowdens disease or Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Both are associated with other rare cancers in addition to breast cancers at young ages. Cowdens is associated with cancers of the thyroid and lining of the uterus (endometrium); Li-Fraumeni with childhood cancers, sarcomas, brain tumors, and other rare cancers.
