BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that belong to a class of genes known as tumor suppressors. Mutation of these genes has been linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, and the risks of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer is greatly increased if the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations have been inherited.

Both men and women who have harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations may be at increased risk of other types of cancer.

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Genetic tests are available to check for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. A blood sample is required for these tests, and genetic counseling is recommended before and after the tests.

According to Cancer.gov, people with the below types of family medical histories can benefit the most from BRCA testing:

• Two first-degree relatives (mother, daughter or sister) were diagnosed with breast cancer, one of whom was diagnosed at age 50 or younger;
• Three or more first-degree or second-degree (grandmother or aunt) relatives were diagnosed with breast cancer regardless of their age at diagnosis;
• A combination of first- and second-degree relatives were diagnosed with breast cancer and ovarian cancer (one cancer type per person);
• A first-degree relative with cancer was diagnosed in both breasts ( bilateral breast cancer);
• A combination of two or more first- or second-degree relatives were diagnosed with ovarian cancer regardless of age at diagnosis;
• A first- or second-degree relative was diagnosed with both breast and ovarian cancer regardless of age at diagnosis; and breast cancer was diagnosed in a male relative.

How Likely Is It That I’ll Test Positive For The Mutation?

In all, between 0.125 and 0.25 percent of women will test positive for the BRCA mutation, and it varies by ethnicity. These women have an increased risk of getting breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

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Something that another star, Wanda Sykes, knows very well.

In 2011, during a recent Ellen DeGeneres show taping, Wanda Sykes made a shocking confession:

“I had breast cancer. Yeah, I know it’s scary.”

READ: The Food That May Lower Your Breast Cancer Risk

Sykes admitted that while lab work was being performed after her breast reduction in February 2011 (“I had real big boobs and I just got tired of knocking over stuff,” Sykes joked), doctors discovered she had DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ), a stage zero cancer, in her left breast.

Because she has a long history of cancer on her mother’s side of the family, Sykes opted to have a bilateral, or double, mastectomy.

Although breast cancer (BC) survival has steadily improved for European American (EA) women over the past few decades, similar improvements have not been observed for African American (AA) women. In 2006, 32 BC deaths were reported nationally for every 100,000 women-years among AA compared to only 23 among EA.

In Chicago, this disparity grew over the past decade and is even higher than that observed nationally. During 1999-2003 the BC mortality rate was 49% higher for AA women than for EA women. This disparity increased to 68% in 2003 and 116% in 2005 and remains even after controlling for age, SES, tumor stage and histology, hormone receptor status, and menopausal status. Not only are AA women with breast cancer more likely than EA women to die from their cancer, they are also more likely to die from co-morbid conditions including diabetes and hypertension. Poor diet, lack of physical activity, and obesity contribute to breast cancer progression, as well as the development and exacerbation of many co-morbid conditions. Efforts to reduce the high mortality rates observed in AA women with breast cancer are critically needed, and addressing poor diet, lack of physical activity, and high rates of obesity may provide the best near-term opportunity to decrease breast cancer and all-cause mortality among AA BC survivors.

In response to this battle one researcher from a major university in Chicago created Moving Forward.

Moving Forward is a 6-month long research-based weight loss and nutrition program that was developed with and for African-American breast cancer survivors to address their interest in making important lifestyle changes after their breast cancer treatment. For many women, the end of breast cancer treatments is both a relief and a worry. Although the women are glad to be done with treatment, they also worry about what they need to do now to keep themselves healthy and to gain back their energy. Plus, since most women gain weight as a result of their breast cancer treatment, many are looking for support to eat healthier, exercise more and lose some weight.

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables may lower women’s risk for a tough-to-treat form of breast cancer, but it does not reduce their odds of getting breast cancer overall, a new study finds.

Specifically, the new study found lower rates of what’s known as “estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer” among women who ate high amounts of fruits and vegetables.

These tumors — which do not respond to circulating estrogen — account for 15 percent to 20 percent of breast cancers, and have a lower survival rate than other types of breast cancer.

According to a team led by Seungyoun Jung, formerly at the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, previous research has suggested that consuming higher amounts of fruits and vegetables might lower breast cancer risk, but there haven’t been enough data to prove it.

In their new investigation, Jung’s team analyzed data from 20 prior studies of women who were followed for a maximum of 11 to 20 years.

They found a statistically significant link between higher fruit and vegetable consumption and a lower risk for estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer, but not with a lower risk of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers (those that do respond to estrogen) or for breast cancer overall.

The lower risk for estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer was mostly associated with higher intake of vegetables, Jung’s team noted in a journal news release.

Kadcyla, from Roche, is a combination of the drug Herceptin, a powerful chemotherapy drug, as well as a third chemical that links the two treatments together and keep everything intact until it can bind to the cancer cell.

Researchers say that Kadcyla may be superior to its predecessors because it delivers more potent treatment – with less side effects.

The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2.

Worry about recurrence drives decision, experts say, but majority have low risk of cancer in the healthy breast.

Almost 70 percent of women with breast cancer who choose to have both breasts removed as a precaution actually have a low risk of developing cancer in the healthy breast, a new study finds.

Worry about recurrence — which is understandable — typically drives the decision to have the opposite breast removed, said study author Dr. Sarah Hawley, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. The procedure is called a contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM).

However, that worry can be out of proportion to actual risk, she said. “Our point is that worry about recurrence probably should not drive choice for CPM since this procedure will not reduce the risk of cancer recurrence; it is only going to reduce the risk of developing a new primary in the non-affected breast,” she said.

The risk of a new cancer in the healthy breast is less than 1 percent for most women, Hawley explained, while the risk of cancer coming back in the same breast or nearby lymph nodes is 8 percent.

Hawley’s team surveyed nearly 1,500 women who had been treated for breast cancer and had not had a recurrence after four years. Of those, 35 percent had considered CPM and 7 percent had the surgery to remove both breasts. When they looked only at the women who had a mastectomy to treat their cancer, nearly one in five chose to have both breasts removed.

Yet, 70 percent of the women who underwent CPM actually had a very low risk of developing breast cancer in the healthy breast.

Hawley is scheduled to present the findings Friday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Quality Care Symposium, in San Diego.

READ: Oprah’s Breast Cancer Scare

Breast-cancer screening saves lives even though it also picks up cases in some women that would never have caused them a problem, according to a review published in The Lancet medical journal.

The independent review, commissioned by the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and Britain’s Department of Health, follows fierce international debate about the benefits of routine screening and recent research that has argued it does more harm than good.

“This has become an area of high controversy,” said Sir Mike Richards, the Department of Health’s National Cancer Director and one of the sponsors of the review.

Critics of routine screening argue that women can be subjected to unnecessary surgery, radiotherapy and medication to treat cancers that would have posed them no risk.

Harpal Kumar, chief executive of CRUK, acknowledged the shortcomings of screening but argued that until testing for breast cancer becomes more sophisticated, regular monitoring is the best option.

“Screening remains one of the best ways to spot the very early signs of breast cancer, at a stage when treatment is most likely to be successful,” he said.

“Yet, as the review shows, some cancers will be diagnosed and treated that would never have caused any harm.”

A panel of experts led by University College London professor Sir Michael Marmot concluded that screening prevents about 1,300 deaths per year in Britain but can also lead to about 4,000 women having treatment for a condition that would never have troubled them.

The queen of media took to the stage of O magazine’s annual conference to discuss a number of business-related topics but revealed the shocking health news without warning.

New research may point to factors behind these numbers.

According to several new studies presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities, minority women who show higher incidence of moderate- to high-grade tumors are less likely to seek or receive follow-up radiation treatment. They and their families are slower to receive other types of health care as well.

“Radiation treatment decreases the risk for breast cancer recurring and improves survival from the disease,” said Abigail Silva, MPH, Susan G. Komen Cancer Disparities Research trainee at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Prior studies have shown that black and Hispanic women are less likely than white women to obtain radiation treatment when eligible, and this may partly explain racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer outcomes, according to Silva.

“We also found that patients who got chemotherapy were less likely to get radiation when they needed it,” Silva said. “Because minorities tended to have more aggressive breast cancer that more often required chemotherapy, this disproportionately affected them.”

Silva and colleagues gathered interview and medical record data from a study of patients with single invasive primary tumors, including 397 non-Hispanic whites, 411 non-Hispanic blacks and 181 Hispanics. Data indicated that minority women were less likely to get radiation treatment compared with non-Hispanic white women.