Breast Cancer as a Genetic Red Flag

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Genomics Pedigree

It is important to note that the genetic red flags in Figure 1 depicted above include heart disease, hypertension, and breast cancer. Among these three conditions, breast cancer is the most likely to express some form of hereditary nature of transmission, whereas heart disease and hypertension are complex diseases heavily impacted by environmental conditions. For example, heart disease and hypertension can be caused by poor diet, unhealthy lifestyle, physical inactivity, or risky habitual behaviors, such as smoking (Jorde et al., 2019). However, when it comes to breast cancer, there is a strong element of genetic influence and hereditary pattern of passing the genes (Jorde et al., 2019). From the pedigree above, one can observe that non-cancer diseases do not have any indications of hereditary patterns since my grandparents from the father line do not suffer from hypertension or heart disease. Similarly, no person from my mother’s side suffers from these two conditions despite the grandfather’s heart condition contributing to his death. It should be pointed out that the described observations are mostly speculative since genes can be carried recessively and passed on, which makes the assessment more demanding for closer analyses.

The most serious genetic red flag is breast cancer, which is well-known to have a hereditary aspect to it, such as the famous Angelina Jolie’s case. My grandmother from the mother’s line died due to breast cancer metastasis, and a similar health condition can be observed in my aunt. Although my mother does not have any indication of breast cancer since she checks for it regularly, it does not translate to having any risk. Breast cancer genes, such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2, are autosomal dominant, which means that they have a strong likelihood of being inherited and expressed as a health condition of cancer (MedlinePlus, 2021). Therefore, my family is highly aware of the risk of breast cancer risk, which is why we undergo annual examinations for preventative purposes.

For the onset at an earlier age than expected and condition occurrence in the gender that is least expected, there is no specific observation that can be made on the pedigree. Both hypertension and heart disease are most likely non-genetic but rather environmental. Breast cancer follows the typical pattern of being more predominantly impactful among females since male breast cancer is rather rare (MedlinePlus, 2021). In the case of disease occurrence in the absence of known risk factors, both my father and his brother suffer from a metabolic health condition, which shows no apparent risk factors from their parents. Thus, the latter skews the assumptions towards environmental factors’ involvement.

Ethnic predisposition plays a critical role in public health. It is stated that “in 2018, African Americans were 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites …African American adults are 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure” (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2022, para. 1). However, due to complex nature of heart diseases and hypertension, it is impossible to firmly state that the ethnic predisposition is at play for this specific pedigree. Lastly, there is no close biological relationship existing between parents since their corresponding families come from different regions, backgrounds, and genetic tree lines.

References

Jorde, L. B., Carey, J. C., & Bamshad, M. J. (2019). Medical genetics (6^th ed.). Elsevier.

MedlinePlus. (2021). Breast cancer. Web.

United States Department of Health and Human Services. (2022). Science & tech spotlight: Deepfakes. Web.

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Breast Cancer as a Genetic Red Flag

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