Blood Test Finds Breast Cancer Gene

OKLAHOMA CITY -- More than 180,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the United States, and more than 40,000 of those women die from the disease, doctors said.

Now, there's a new tool that can help people survive by letting them know whether they have a mutation of a gene that makes people much more likely to get breast cancer.

"For the most part, if you have one of these really strong family histories that match up with the mutation in the gene, it's up to (an) 85 percent chance you're going to get breast cancer," Dr. Alan Hollingsworth told KOCO-TV. "And, most likely, it's going to occur before the age of 50."

Breast cancer has plagued Amy Stanfield's family for years. Her mother, aunts and sister were all diagnosed with the disease under the age of 50.

"I've seen my sister just be extremely sick and battle with chemotherapy. She's been doing it for over a year now," Stanfield said.

Until recently, this mother of four thought she would be a victim, too.

"You know, several years ago we wouldn't have known and would've just come up with it like my sister did and have to battle that," she said. "And, who knows what my end result would be?"

All it takes is a simple blood test, doctors said.

"So, we take somebody out of the family who has breast cancer already, test them. Then, when we get the results back, if that person is positive, now everybody in the family is a candidate for testing," Hollingsworth said.

That includes men, who can also carry the breast cancer gene.

The first test costs about $3,000; however, it's usually only about $350 each for every other person in the family, doctors said.

As for Stanfield, she in fact carries the gene and said that knowing is better than not knowing. She said she's able to take steps to prevent the onset of cancer, including a double mastectomy, which would reduce the cancer risk from 85 percent to less than 1 percent.