All women need to pay attention to their risk factors for breast cancer and ovarian cancer, but women of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish ancestry should be especially vigilant, says University of Colorado Cancer Center member Marie Wood, MD, as their risk for having a genetic variant in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes is increased, predisposing them to developing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
A healthy woman of Ashkenazi Jewish descent has a 1 in 40 chance of having one of these BRCA gene mutations, says Wood, co-director of the hereditary cancer program at the CU Cancer Center and medical director of the center’s Cancer Clinical Trials Office.
We spoke with Wood about what women with Eastern European Jewish ancestry should know about their increased cancer risk.