Myth: Everyone who has a positive BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 will get breast cancer.

FALSE. While women with a positive BRCA test have a much higher chance of breast cancer, it does not guarantee the development of the disease.

About 12 percent of women in the general population will develop breast cancer sometime during their lifetime.  For women who have inherited a harmful mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2, that number is much higher.  There is a lot of controversy about the exact rate, but it appears to be up to 5 times higher than for women without the mutation.

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Myth #8: Most women with breast cancer have a family history of the disease

Wrong! Not one person on either side of my family has even had cancer, not to mention breast cancer.

FALSE. Eight out of 9 women who develop breast cancer do not have an affected mother, sister or daughter.

If you have relatives who have had breast cancer, you may worry that you’re next. Family history of breast cancer usually refers to having two or more first-degree relatives (such as a mother, sister, or daughter) or second-degree relatives (such as an aunt, niece or grandmother) who have had breast cancer.  The risk for developing breast cancer does increase with increasing numbers of affected first-degree relatives compared with women who have no affected relatives. So, while it is true that women with a family history of breast cancer have an increased risk of developing the disease, most of these women will never get breast cancer.

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