Hereditary Cancer is Preventable

Hereditary cancer risk is not an individual issue, it can involve half the family tree. Hundreds of thousands of cancer cases could be prevented and thousands of lives saved every year if we just changed the way we think and talk about hereditary cancer.

National Hereditary Cancer Week begins this coming Sunday. Do you know the health history of your family tree? Hereditary cancer is preventable.

A sidenote: Angelina Jolie is said to be a Filles du Roi descendant on her maternal side. Angelina has a BRCA1 mutation. Her mother, who died of ovarian cancer, was of French-Canadian descent.

 

Puking on the Mayflower

The Mayflower/Thanksgiving thing feels kind of awkward for me with all the books, websites, merchandising, and total BS about some of my ancestors. And then I also have Native American ancestors on my father’s side (DNA-yes, exact tribe-it’s complicated). Thanksgiving is a mixed bag at my house.

Many of the Pilgrims did not survive that first year at Plymouth. I’m thankful Resolved did survive; otherwise (duh), I would not exist. My 9th great-grandfather did not. But my 9th great-grandmother did and likely helped prepare the first Thanksgiving dinner.

Obviously, I don’t have total reverence for my heritage. While I do have some decent notable ancestors and genetic cousins – adventurers, writers, artists – from the history books, some of my genetic relatives were just plain a-holes and not great humans.

Go to www.MARKiX.net/mayflower to read some truths about the Mayflower voyage.

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Postscript. Something to contemplate: Many famous people (Clint Eastwood, Sally Field, John Lithgow, Noah Webster, and others) are descendants of William Bradford and his second wife. They would not exist if my cousin, Dorothy (May) Bradford, had not died. Dorothy "fell" off the Mayflower and drowned in the icy waters while the ship was anchored off Cape Cod Harbor.

2024 National Hereditary Cancer Week Posters

The story of two posters…
One to raise awareness about the hereditary cancer community. And one to make a point that there are ways to prevent hereditary cancer in spite of some medical policies and practices still stuck in the last century. (More about that in upcoming posts.)

Please share. And you can download PDFs at: genetionary.org

Promoting Childhood Literacy & Preventing Ovarian Cancer?

Providing funding for ovarian cancer early detection research AND childhood literacy programs, the Amy Krouse Rosenthal Foundation is a very special organization honoring a very special human being.

With a daughter (holding the umbrella) at risk of ovarian cancer because of an inherited genetic mutation and with me being a children’s book illustrator, I support the AKR Foundation wholeheartedly.

With National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month coming up in September, it’s a perfect time to support the 2024 Yellow Umbrella Campaign.

Please learn more about Amy and the AKR Foundation at: www.amykrouserosenthalfoundation.org

Please join me in supporting the Foundation’s annual Yellow Umbrella Campaign here: 
www.amykrouserosenthalfoundation.org/campaign

Total Unique BRCA Variants Charted

Please note: This might not be the most current BRCA mutation stats.
Go to genetionary.org for an updated version.

“It’s probably not that simple.” And “BRCA mutations are rare.” That is what I was told by my late wife’s doctor when my wife was first diagnosed with cancer. I was pushing for my wife to have genetic testing because of her family’s cancer history and a second-degree relative’s recently-provided positive BRCA2 mutation report. Her doctor was hesitant but eventually agreed to refer my wife for testing.

It was that simple.

My wife had inherited a BRCA2 mutation (which our daughter also inherited) and was diagnosed with Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome. Had her relative’s report not been kept unshared for seven years, it would have saved her life.

And “rare.”?

This infographic represents only BRCA genes. To date, there are about 50 other genes associated with hereditary cancer syndromes. And that’s just the number of genes, not the total number of mutations possible.

Look at the chart and do the math. It will be eye-opening.

Please share. Knowledge is power. Hereditary cancer can be prevented.

 

The Thinking Cap & EducatorClips.com

As a freelance illustrator, sometimes something you create takes on a life of its own* and you see it being used all over the place. With it getting to be back-to-school time, I thought I’d share this.

This particular piece of art was created many years ago for the Discovery (Channel) Education Clip Art Gallery. I often see it (and rip-offs of it) as well as a lot of the hundreds of other pieces of clip art from the Gallery I created. I even saw some of my clip art being used at the chemotherapy infusion center where my late wife was being treated for metastatic hereditary cancer. Which, I might add, was actually heartbreaking on many levels.

Way back in 1999, there were basically no free online clip art galleries for educators, so Discovery licensed my whimsical collection for exclusive use. I had originally created much of the clip art for my elementary school teacher wife to use in the classroom and in newsletters to parents. Discovery used my clip art collection for twenty years until the contract expired and they changed their focus. However, since I still owned all rights to the artwork, I created my own website where the art can be downloaded for use by educators gratis at www.EducatorClips.com. 

If you want to learn more about the history of my clip art, please visit the site. And if you ever want to see how others are using the posted image, just do a “thinking cap” image web search.

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*As you might imagine, my Thinking Cap art is just one of numerous creations to take on lives of their own. And sometimes it can be very frustrating. My Chartpak International Typeface Competition winner, La Fiesta (aka Tijuana), is an example of that.

The Medical Brain Trust and Germline Mutations

 

Unfortunately, genomic science is far ahead of the maturity it takes to use its life-saving capabilities effectively. Every gene sequencing report with a pathogenic variant identified that I have seen clearly states in one way or another that other family members may be at risk. Yet, it’s still considered an individual issue, where the sharing of very complex information with other family members is left to the patient, regardless of their ability to do so. Tell me, how does that make sense? How is that ethical?

Nobody should die of a preventable cancer. Nobody!

The cartoon can also be viewed in a larger format at https://markix.net/brain/