New Study Recommends All Ashkenazi Women Be Screened for BRCA
All women of Ashkenazi descent should be screened from age 30 for the BRCA gene mutation that causes breast cancer, an Israeli study recommends.
The study, by a research team headed by Ephrat Levy-Lahad of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was published Friday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Until now, Ashkenazi women have been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes only if a close blood relative had breast or ovarian cancer or were identified as carrying the gene.
The research was conducted on a random group of Jewish women of Ashkenazi origin who did not necessarily have a family history of the disease.
Many of the women identified during the study as being mutation carriers would not have known otherwise, according to the study. The mutation can be handed down to women through their fathers.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO