FAQs

As a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carrier, how can I benefit from the information available at BRCAscoop.com?

BRCAscoop creates, curates, and provides high quality information resources to BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers.  Although much attention focuses on the genetic testing process itself, the decisions made downstream of testing are arguably far more important than the test itself.  Those decisions are made in a complex healthcare environment in which:

  1. There can be geographic and other disparities in healthcare providers’ knowledge of and experience with Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer.
  2. Individuals and families in many areas of healthcare are taking a more active role in participating in joint health-related decision-making with their physicians.
  3. The internet is awash in information, but it can be hard to know where to find the good stuff.
  4. Very active clinical research results in new findings with relevance to BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers with some frequency.

Today, many women and men who learn they are BRCA1 or BRCA2 carriers have 30, 40, 50, 60 or even 70 years of making good solid health decisions ahead of them.  We’re here to help support that process regardless of geography.

 

What is the BRCAscoop Email Newsletter and where can I sign up?

The BRCAscoop Email Newsletter is a great quick read with brief summaries and curated links to information about newly published BRCA1 and BRCA2-related clinical research studies and other relevant news.  We try to get it out about every 2 weeks.  You can sign-up to get it free here.

 

How do I know that the information I see on the website and in The BRCAscoop Update is high quality?

BRCAscoop.com is from Evinome, a company founded and run by a well-trained physician with dual board certification in Internal Medicine and Clinical Genetics, in addition to substantial experience in the care of individuals with Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer risk.  For more information, please click here.

Although this website is for informational and educational purposes only (and, to be clear, use of the website does not constitute the establishment of a physician-patient relationship), you can rest assured that we are able to provide you with high quality Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer-related information.

 

What is The BRCAscoop 2011 Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Research Report and where can I get it?

Sometimes it can be hard in this era of information overload – in the newspaper, on TV, and online – to sort out which of the Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer studies mentioned in the news are truly important to your health and wellness and which are just incremental improvements.  To create The BRCAscoop 2011 Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Research Report, we’ve combed through the hundreds of newly published BRCA1 and BRCA2-related clinical research studies from the last year and identified 10 with the potential for greatest impact on BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers.

The 2011 Research Report describes key findings, places the information in the context of previous knowledge, and explains how each study may be relevant to the health and wellness of BRCA1 or BRCA2 carriers.  We offer the 2011 Research Report through a unique “Pay-What-You-Want” model, so that everyone has access regardless of ability to pay.  Get your copy today!

 

I noticed that you donate 50 percent of revenue from new subscriptions to the BRCAscoop 2011 Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Research Report to non-profits.  Can you tell me more about this?

We are a part of the Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer information ecosystem, and as part of our social entrepreneurship mission, we believe it is important to support other entities doing good work in this area.  When you get your 2011 Research Report copy, we ask which of several nonprofits you would like a full 50 percent of the purchase price to go to.  So, you can feel good that you are supporting other stakeholders in the area of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer too!

Our family (which has a very strong history of early-onset breast and ovarian cancer and other cancer types) has been tested for BRCA mutations, but the test results were normal.  We are still interested in learning more about what other genes might be behind our family’s strong history of breast, ovarian, and other cancers.

There is a lot of new information in this area.  Researchers periodically demonstrate that new genes are behind the risk in small subsets of families.  In some of the families, there are family history and/or physical exam clues that may point to a rare cancer predisposition syndrome that should be investigated further.

The best way to look into this in detail is to make an appointment with a well-qualified genetics professional (i.e., Clinical Geneticist and/or Genetic Counselor) with substantial experience with Clinical Cancer Genetics.

We also would suggest two resources that we’ve been working on that you will likely find useful:

1. Check out our growing resource at our BRCAnegativeScoop website – which will go live at BRCAnegative.com on Tuesday, March 22.

2. Consider getting a preorder copy of  “The BRCA Negative Book” or getting more seriously involved in the project.

______

We’ll be featuring more FAQs soon.  If you would like to see a particular question addressed here, please let us know via our contact form.