JAMA Article

I believe I have had adequate time now to thouroughly digest the article pertaining to Risk Reducing Surgery publishind in the last month. It is by no means light readaing, riddled with medical terminology and statistics it could easily be seen as sleep inducing for the general population.

My first several times through were much like a whirlwind. I picked up on the key phrases that pertained to my specific circumstances and that of Katie's and took much relief from a patients perspective. It took me a few days to put aside my excitement in the article from a personal understanding and start to analyze the article as a person wanting to inform others of the overall information provided.

Within the article are several tables expressing the data collected and the numerical evaluations of that data. What does this data say?

1. Preventative surgery works.

I am not saying that if you have preventative surgery that you will not ever get cancer. What I am saying is that a person can make a choice of prevention knowing that his or her overall risk will be reduced.

Preventative surgery is not a cure for our gene mutations, but I do not know many people out their who would not like a little less risk in their lives.

It is so hard to decide what to and not to share, and I can hardly do it justice. If you would like to read for yourself please go to the following link. Also, if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/304/9/967

I had plans to elaborate a great deal more and try to give you more information from this article, but I find myself incapable of the means to do so tonight. The proof is there that preventative surgery is working to reduce overall risk. Improved surgical practices and methods and a better understanding of what we are dealing with has brought us so far in the past 10 years. To many people out their it could easily be seen as a bleek and depressing time to find out your BRCA status, but there is so much HOPE to be had.

We are not alone, and more importantly we have amazing allies on our side. There are thousands of doctors, nurses, research technichians, students, and countless others who are fighting for our better tomorrow. I cannot think of anything more refreshing and hopeful to an Oncologist than the ability to prevent cancer! We are a new kind of army and our batallions are growing daily!

God Bless!