In patients with BRCA1/2 mutations, common chemotherapy not found to be heart toxic

[News]

Use of anthracycline-based chemotherapy, a common treatment for breast cancer, has negligible cardiac toxicity in women whose tumors have BRCA1/2 mutations -- despite preclinical evidence that such...

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[Becky]

This is very interesting. Many years ago I tried to research what the "good" attribute of the BRCA genes are. These genes are called founder mutations meaning one individual was born with it. That person got something good out of it that helped them so they survived longer, reproduced and their children who inherited got the same benefits. Since it originates in eastern Europe and is more widely spread within the Jewish population, lets say for this example, it was a Jew. All populations way back married within their communities and if a religion was involved, even more so way back then. So it concentrates. But what good is the gene? I think it protects the body from toxins (after all, chemo is a toxin). And Jews have been persecuted throughout time. Being forced to live on the worst land, in the worst environments. So these genes helped them live in crowded conditions in the worst environments. The bad part of the gene didn't come into play that often because 2000 years ago - or even 200 years ago for that matter, people lived long enough to have children but many didn't live long enoigh to get the cancer these genes cause . I know these genes are not positive because of that now, but they protected a population back then. Again, I am just thinking out loud.