BRCA1 BRCA2 Mutations and the Diagnosis of Breast and Ovarian Cancer

I had just hung up the phone after speaking with a dear friend who was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I was about to send her an email when I stumbled across the article (on Yahoo) about Pierce Brosnan’s daughters (Charlotte) recent death from the same disease. I was once again reminded of how important it is for women to be aware of these inheritable tumours and decided to write a series of posts on the topic. Here are some facts you should be aware of so you can reduce your risk of succumbing to this type of cancer. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that belong to a class of genes known as tumor suppressors. Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer has been linked to mutation of these genes. If a woman inherits a deleterious or harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2