About ten percent of breast cancers are hereditary, says Dr. Ophira Ginsburg, Director of the High-Risk Cancer Program at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. What this means is any genetic testing offered to the average woman will likely come back negative. That’s why she recommends screening usually only for women who have a family history of rare cancers, or family members with breast or ovarian cancer and other cancers associated with the Lynch Syndrome (a genetic condition that puts you at high risk for certain cancers), or if there’s a family history of common cancers diagnosed at a young age.
If you do have this family history, Dr. Ginsburg recommends asking about your cancer center’s hereditary cancer program and/or finding a genetic counselor through the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC ) to discuss what kind of genetic testing is right for you.
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