| Women who have BRCA breast cancer genetic | | | | eastern European) Jewish heritage [one reason why |
| mutations are just as likely to survive as other | | | | the study was done in Israel]. |
| women who get breast cancer, according to a new | | | | Using the Israeli National Cancer Registry, the |
| study published in the New England Journal of | | | | researchers were able to compare two large groups |
| Medicine. | | | | of BCRA carriers and non-carriers with breast cancer. |
| Women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are more | | | | They tested the DNA from stored tumor specimens |
| likely to get breast cancer. It was also widely | | | | from patients treated in Israel between 1987- 1998, |
| believed that those with hereditary breast cancer | | | | and then reviewed the medical records from women |
| from BRCA1 mutations had worse outcomes. This | | | | whose specimens were collected. The mutation was |
| new study, tracked two groups of women with | | | | found in about 10% of the women who were of |
| breast cancer in Israel, one with the inherited BRCA1 | | | | Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. The ten year survival |
| and BRCA2 mutations, and the other without. The | | | | rates between women who had the mutation and |
| researchers found no significant difference in death | | | | those who did not were similar. |
| rates between the two groups. Between 5 and 10 | | | | This news should prove reassuring for women who |
| percent of all breast cancers are hereditary and are | | | | carry the BRCA mutations and worry about breast |
| more likely to occur with women from certain ethnic | | | | cancer survival. |
| backgrounds like people of Ashkenazi (central or | | | | |