The 'Gene' factor - enjoy the song
 

Happened to come across this website (with a beautiful song) today, thought I'd share it with everyone here:

http://www.jacobintl.org/index.html

There are many useful links on the website, be sure to check it out.

Some may wonder why a Chinese/Oriental breast cancer survivor would care about a website that plays a Jewish song. Well, the common genes have been found in many different regions of the world, including China. I was introduced to the story about the Jews in Kaifeng (An ancient Capital of China) by one of the members here and bugged my oncologist to 'prescribe' me a gene test (costs about $3000.00) To everyone's surprise, the test revealed a BRCA1 - Variant of uncertain significance.

I put the test result aside until half year later when I was told about my 2nd Brother's (10 years my senior) colon cancer surgery and treatment. Since my (soon to be 88) Mother is a (now 13-year)Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor, I looked up the Internet and found a cluster called HNPCC (Hereditary Non-polyposis Colon Cancer) which seems to explain the cancer incidents in my family.

So I requested for and was approved (based on personal/family cancer history and BRCA test result) to have a prophylactic (preventive) hysterectomy/oophorectomy January 2010, one month short of my 50th birthday. I've been feeling so much better I'm quite sure that I've escaped some big problems in the future. [The surgeon had mentioned that he could see there're already some changes inside of my uterus ('uterine hyperplesia'?)...]

I had already had a ‘clean’ colonoscopy a year prior. Yet with a family member's colon cancer history, I was told by my family doctor that I will need to have a follow-up colonoscopy every 5 years instead of the standard 10 years.

The best web sources for the 'gene' topic is probably

FORCE: Face Our Risk of Cancer Empowered http://www.facingourrisk.org/events/local_events.php

which has also been introduced/often reminded by ‘Soccermom’. She posted a link in March about the upcoming FORCE conference in Orlando, FL
http://her2support.org/vbulletin/sho...ighlight=Force

Re: The 'Gene' factor - enjoy the song
 

Thanks Jackie. Nice website.
The Ashkenazi Jewish people migrated all over the world and intermarried with many different kinds of people.
I have a degree in Religion. My Religion professor told me the Ashkenazi Jewish people were one of the first groups to migrate away from the Middle East. One day I was having a discussion with a friend who has a Ph.D in the sociology of religion and found out some of the places they migrated to. Very interesting !!!!!!!!
I have some Jewish ancestors and had BRCA 1 and 2 testing, but I was negative for BRCA 1 and 2.
Specialists in genetics have also found other mutations in people. I think the field of genetics is wide open for discovery.