[julierene]

p53 was the one we were tested for. My brother died from rhabdomyosarcoma at age 12, he got it at age 5. My mother and I both got breast cancer at age 28, and my daughter got adrenal cortical carcinoma at age 5. It's very difficult to figure out what testing should be done. But that was a side note, to the already perplexing amount of information that is available about genetic cancer.

I believe the number is much higher than 10% in women under 40. Maybe 10% have the BRAC mutation. There are so many genes, other than BRAC 1 and 2 though. 12 years ago, they tested our p53 gene, and found nothing. It took 12 years to find what had been causing our problem.

One thing they don't deny is that family history is a huge factor. Basically, your children have a 50% chance of inheriting the genes that you got to cause your body to be susceptible to cancer. The docs have only mapped out certain genes that are "known" to be problem areas. Just because they don't have a test, doesn't mean the information of your cancer dx won't be extremely important to your children.

I grew up thinking my risk wasn't big because I thought I would take better care of myself. No smoking, hardly ever drinking, and when I had a drink (nothing to get drunk over), no birth control pills, eating right, not being overweight, etc. It didn't matter. I feel the same way about women under 40 who get BC - and even moreso for those under 35. I think it will take another 20 years before that can be realized through the genetics testing.

If you don't have a specific gene in mind for your family history, I wouldn't recommend any kind of testing. Chances are, they won't find anything and you will get a false sense of security. Ugh, what a yucky thing to say. But I have never been the type of person to sugar-coat anything - no point starting now.