If I have a genetic breast cancer risk, should my daughters get tested?

Genetics has offered us startling medical discoveries, especially over the last 10 years. One significant discovery critical to women with a strong family incidence of breast cancer, is the identification of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Women who test positive for a mutation of one of these genes have a greatly increased chance of developing breast and ovarian cancer during their lifetimes. In fact, five to 10 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer will be carriers of one of these mutations.

At Johns Hopkins, we do not encourage women who are carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 to test their children. In fact, we strongly believe that women should be of age so they can participate in the decision-making process that goes into testing and the possible choices with knowing one is a carrier of the mutation. 50 percent of the children of a BRCA gene carriers will also have the same gene. We do recommend that women with a strong family history of breast cancer be followed by experienced breast specialists at a high-risk breast clinic so they can create a plan for screening and testing.