Hereditary Breast And Ovarian Cancer: A Case Study

Cancer refers to several diseases that the involve uncontrolled growth of mutated cells in the body. Normally, cells grow and divide based on signals and the body’s needs, and new cells replace old or damaged cells. However, cancer is able to develop when cell signaling is interrupted. The old cells stop dying and instead form new abnormal cells, possibly resulting in a tumor. Cancerous cells are malignant, which means they can invade nearby tissue, and can potentially metastasize and spread to various regions of the body. Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC), a carcinoma cancer that arises in the epithelial tissue of the skin or lining of internal organs, is an autosomal dominant disease that can be inherited from either parent and can develop as early as the teens. HBOC may develop if there are multiple cases of breast cancer and ovarian cancer in family genealogy, a …show more content…
Prophylactic surgery is a risk-reducing surgery that includes prophylactic bilateral mastectomy (PBM), prophylactic contralateral mastectomy (PCM), and prophylactic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (PBSO). PBM is performed by removing 95% of the breast tissue and can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 95% (Hartmann et al, 2016). PCM can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 50% and ovarian cancer by 97%. PBSO removes both the breasts and ovaries, is performed laparoscopically - through small incisions that are minimally invasive - and can decrease the risk of death by HBOC by 75% (Meindl et al, 2011). Chemoprevention by use of tamoxifen is the only known option and decreases the risk of breast cancer by 38% in premenopausal women. Tamoxifen also decreases the chance of contracting contralateral great cancer by 50%. In terms of ovarian cancer, oral contraceptives have shown to decrease the risk of ovarian cancer by 50% and death by 80% (Nielsen et al,