Stop Blaming Your Genes

摘要

When her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, Joan became frantic. The New Jersey homemaker had been sure she was doing everything right to minimize her risk of the disease—having two children while still young, exercising, eating carrots until her fingers turned orange. But now that she had one of those "first-degree relatives" that mean your own risk is greater, Joan, 73, quickly scheduled the mammogram she'd put off for years and began doing regular breast self-exams. The checkups were a good idea, but she needn't have panicked. According to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine, the risk of developing breast cancer if your sister does is less than 9 percent.