Why Jewish Women Are a Challenging Demographic in Fight Against Breast Cancer
Breast cancer awareness pin Image by iStock
By Naomi Zeveloff July 15, 2016
Public health officials trying to fight breast cancer in Australia find the country’s Jewish population especially challenging.
That’s because Australia’s Jewish community of 112,000 is overwhelmingly Ashkenazi, or of European origin, and counts a high number of descendents of Holocaust survivors, said Lesley Andrews, a doctor at Prince of Whales hospital in Randwick, Australia. Andrews presented at “Lessons from the Jewish Genome,” a conference on Jewish genetics in Haifa on July 13.
Ashkenazi Jews are about 10 times more likely than the general population to have BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, those harmful mutations that can lead to the development of breast cancer.
The decision to get tested for these gene mutations often hinges on family history. If other female relatives were diagnosed with breast cancer, it’s a clear sign that a woman should get tested herself. But many Australian Jews don’t know their family’s long-term cancer history because their family ties were severed in the Holocaust.
Andrews, along with researchers Nicole Cousens and Bettine Meiser, conducted a survey in the Australian Jewish community about the possibility of creating community program that would make it easier for Australian Jews to get tested, regardless of family breast cancer history. The “bottom line” is saving women’s lives, Andrews said.
Of the 370 respondents, “97 percent supported a Jewish community-based BRCA 1/2 testing program, and 66% reported being personally interested in undergoing the test,” according to an abstract provided by the researchers.
Andrews and her co-researchers proposed creating an interactive web site to support Jewish community members with counseling around the topic of genetic testing.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected] or on Twitter @naomizeveloff
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
