Familial breast cancer not indicator anymore

A new study disproves the old notion that having women in your family with breast cancer exponentially increases your risk, period.  If the woman in question did not inherit either the "BRCA1" gene or the "BRCA2" gene from her parents(which both largely increase a woman's risk for breast cancer), then she is not at a greater risk for breast cancer just because some of her first relatives have it. This contradicts a previous study back in 2007 which said that women who did not inherit the BRCA genes were 2-5 times more likely to develop breast cancer if first-relatives in their families did develop the cancer. This is great news for women today who used to think they were at risk for a potentially life threatening disease. Now this does not guarantee that these women will never develop breast cancer, there are other risks like environmental sources of radiation and other genes that lead to greater risk for breast cancer or other cancers. To help rule out these possibilities, genetic screenings can illuminate any other high cancer risk genes and regular mammograms for older women can catch early formations of breast cancer. Ultimately, this a just great news for women everywhere.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/01/study-no-risk-for-women-with-breast-cancer-genes-in-the-family/ (article link)

http://students.cis.uab.edu/ijgeerts/breast%20cancer%20ribbon.jpg (image link)