Week 4 PCL: A Family History

Feel free to discuss inheritance of genes, comments about gene therapy/testing, the human genome project, or ethical issues arising from knowing about inheritance.

Sure there lots of other things, like feelings, we could discuss.

Close your eyes, start a journey to a strange new place,
let you wildest imaginations run free.

Happy posting.

Tim

Part A
From the time she was about 18 years old, self-examination of her breasts was a ritual that Jenny performed religiously. Every day while in the shower she felt around each breast, fearful that she would encounter an alien ‘something’ that wasn’t there the last time. Jenny’s widowed mother Myra was initially sympathetic and did her best to allay her daughter’s fears. She knew that Jenny was very sensitive to the possibility of breast cancer because she, Myra, had developed breast cancer and had undergone a radical mastectomy when only in her early thirties. Several years later Myra’s younger sister Bronwyn had also developed a lump in her left breast that turned out to be malignant.
The knowledge that both her mother and her aunt had suffered from breast cancer was a constant weight on Jenny’s mind. As she approached her thirties, given this family history, she became more and more anxious about her personal risk. To make matters worse, she had recently been made redundant, forcing her to move back in with her mother to save money until she found another job. Living with her mother again and seeing her every day was a constant reminder of what she thought might be in store for her.
The fact that Myra had apparently made a full recovery and now, at 53, still worked part-time and appeared to enjoy her social life, didn’t seem to reassure Jenny. She hated the sight of her mother’s special bra hanging on the clothesline, and tried to avoid noticing when her mother was not wearing her prosthetic.
Myra was one of those positive, outgoing sorts who made the best of everything. Finally, she began to lose patience with Jenny’s paranoia about breast cancer and advised her to put the whole thing out of her mind and get on with her life. “After all,” she said, “just because Bronwyn and I had such bad luck doesn’t mean you will too!”
After reading about gene testing in the newspaper, Jenny decided to find out for herself what the implications of her family history might be. She made an appointment with her family GP who referred her to the nearest Family Cancer Centre.At the Family Cancer Centre Doctor Leon Kessel took a detailed history from Jenny, and then explained that there are inherited forms of breast cancer. On the basis of her family history she was at increased risk, but gene testing was not readily available. Because there were different genes with many possible mutations, testing was only possible if the mutation in the family had first been identified in a person who had had breast cancer, i.e., her mother or aunt.