In 1866, a French physician by the name of Pierre Paul Broca recognised a terrifying disease running through the women of his wife’s family: breast cancer. He wrote that they could be well and have perfect health before this ‘germ’ of an illness would go off like an ‘explosion’ and could kill within 1 to 2 years. Broca studied his family for the next 30 years where he noted that 15 close relatives including his wife’s mother, his wife, and his daughter were all affected.
It would not be until the late 20th century that our knowledge and scientific techniques would lead us to understand this phenomenon. Professor Mary-Claire King in the late 1980s helped to identify the genetics of the BReast CAncer gene and continued research identified another. Today we know these as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
Unfortunately, women who have these BRCA gene mutations have an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer (plus some others). The nature of this disease spans multiple specialities and, as such, we have some special guests for this episode to help us understand this disease, the treatment, and the management of this illness.
** Please note: General Practitioners in Australia, will be able to claim 5.75 CPD hours after listening to this episode and the other five in this Genetics Series. Full details and registration on our GP CPD Points page. The episodes in this collection are:
- Episode 10: Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH)
- Episode 15: Lynch syndrome
- Episode 21: Marfan syndrome
- Episode 30 & Episode 31: BrCa (Breast Cancer genes)
- Episode 40: Carrier screening
Our special guests for Part 1:
Professor Graeme Suthers – National Director of Genetics for Sonic Pathology Australia
Doctor Melissa Bochner – Breast and Endocrine Surgeon and member of BreastSurgANZ and current chair of the Breast Cancer Quality Audit
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