Breast Cancer (BRCA) Gene Test

BRCA (Breast Cancer) Gene Test

What To Think About

There are several important things to think about when you are making the decision to have a BRCA gene test.

• Genetic counselling before and after a BRCA test will help you understand the benefits, risks, and possible outcomes of testing. A BRCA test gives you the chance to make informed medical and lifestyle decisions. For more information, see the topic Breast Cancer Genetic Test. However, information about having gene changes could affect your employment or your health, life, and disability insurance. To find doctors who do gene tests and counselling, contact your local chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society, or the National Cancer Institute of Canada at (416) 961-7223 or online at www.ncic.cancer.ca. To find a genetic counsellor near you, contact the Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors (CAGC) at www.cagc-accg.ca.
• About 5% to 10% of all breast and ovarian cancers are linked to the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene change.³ If you test positive for one of these changes, your lifetime chance of breast cancer is 36% to 85% and your chance for ovarian cancer is 16% to 60%.¹ These numbers show a wide range of chance and depend on other personal and family history.
• If you have a strong family history of breast cancer, a negative BRCA result does not mean that you will not develop breast cancer. BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene changes do cause a higher chance of breast cancer, but other gene changes are possible and may cause cancer.
• If you have a family member with breast cancer, think about asking the family member to be tested for a gene change before you have a test. If your family member's BRCA tests results are negative, it usually is not helpful to test the rest of the family.
• Genetic tests can be very expensive (costing hundreds to thousands of dollars) and may not be covered by your provincial health plan.
• For women from families that do not have risk factors for BRCA changes, a genetic test is not likely to give any useful information about their chance of developing breast cancer. Women from low-risk families rarely have a positive test. A BRCA gene test is not recommended for a person without risk factors, because the test can give a false-positive test result.

Should I have a gene test for breast and ovarian cancer?

What should I do if I'm at high risk for breast cancer?

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Author:	Alison Allen Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH	Last Updated: October 31, 2007
Medical Review:	Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine Douglas A. Stewart, MD - Medical Oncology
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