BRCA — Famil­ial Breast and Ovar­i­an Can­cer Con­sul­ta­tion Hours

Genet­ic muta­tions can be signs or even trig­gers for indi­vid­ual dis­eases. They are con­sid­ered indi­ca­tors for the ear­ly detec­tion of var­i­ous dis­eases and are usu­al­ly passed on through hered­i­tary fac­tors. Many clin­ics there­fore offer spe­cial con­sul­ta­tion hours for genet­ic coun­sel­ing on indi­vid­ual clin­i­cal pic­tures. Using clin­i­cal and lab­o­ra­to­ry diag­nos­tics, risk assess­ment and pre­ven­tive genet­ic coun­sel­ing can be offered to patients and their fam­i­lies. The aim is to enable a risk-adjust­ed range of pre­ven­tive mea­sures at an ear­ly stage.

The con­sul­ta­tion hour for famil­ial breast and ovar­i­an can­cer relat­ed to the BRCA muta­tion is an already very estab­lished spe­cial consultation.

BRCA1, BRCA2 and carcinogenesis

Fre­quent occur­rences of ovar­i­an (peri­toneum) and / or breast can­cer in a fam­i­ly may indi­cate a con­gen­i­tal genet­ic change. In up to about 10 per­cent of all women with breast can­cer and / or ovar­i­an can­cer, a dis­ease-caus­ing change occurs pri­mar­i­ly in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, which have been known since 1993. In recent years, a large num­ber of addi­tion­al rel­e­vant genes have been dis­cov­ered, the changes of which have been linked to can­cer risks. As part of this devel­op­ment, it also became clear that genet­ic changes not only play a role in breast and ovar­i­an can­cer, but also, for exam­ple, in can­cer of the uter­ine lin­ing (endome­tri­al cancer).

Both affect­ed women with a pre­sum­ably con­gen­i­tal muta­tion in the repair genes (e.g. BRCA1 / 2) and their healthy rel­a­tives can ben­e­fit from genet­ic coun­sel­ing. The risk asso­ci­at­ed with a genet­ic change varies great­ly from per­son to per­son. If there is a risk, it is exact­ly that: a risk. It does not mean that peo­ple will inevitably devel­op can­cer at some point in their lives. If you want to know more pre­cise­ly whether you are pos­si­bly at an increased risk, please refer to our check­list. If one or more of the state­ments list­ed there apply to you, a detailed con­sul­ta­tion in our spe­cial con­sul­ta­tion is par­tic­u­lar­ly useful.

Cen­ter for Famil­ial Breast and Ovar­i­an Can­cer at the Char­ité (FBREK)

As one of 23 cen­ters for famil­ial breast and ovar­i­an can­cer in Ger­many, we offer spe­cial con­sul­ta­tion hours. We advise women and men who are con­cerned that they have an increased famil­ial or genet­ic risk.

Con­tact

Hot­line 030–450 564 124 (Mo — Fr 9 — 12 Uhr)
fbrek-zentrum@charite.de