Woman Without High Breast Cancer Risk Recommended Surgery

Woman Without High Breast Cancer Risk Recommended Surgery

A woman in her mid-40s without a personal history of cancer came to see a breast surgeon due to her family history of breast cancer and a sister who was "BRCA positive." The surgeon ordered a large pan-cancer multigene panel, which revealed she had two variants of...

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Is the COVID-19 Vaccine Safe?

Is the COVID-19 Vaccine Safe?

On Friday, December 12, 2020, the United States Food and Drug Administration issued its first Emergency Use Authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA's approval of this vaccine, developed by Pfizer, followed recent approvals of the same vaccine by the UK, Canada,...

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BRCA2-Positive Healthy Young Man Recommended Mastectomy

BRCA2-Positive Healthy Young Man Recommended Mastectomy

A 20-year-old man came in to see a surgeon and get genetic testing based on a history of breast cancer and a pathogenic BRCA2 variant in the family. The man's mother, who accompanied him to see the surgeon, had been diagnosed with breast cancer in her late 20s and had...

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How Do the COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Work?

How Do the COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Work?

Pfizer and Moderna grabbed headlines, and ushered in hope, in announcing this month that each company has vaccines that preliminary data suggest being 90-94% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections. This news is a much-needed salve to a world that has surpassed...

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Surgeon Recommends Mastectomy for Woman with RAD50 Mutation

Surgeon Recommends Mastectomy for Woman with RAD50 Mutation

A 42-year-old woman underwent a breast biopsy due to an abnormal mammogram. Even though the biopsy analysis yielded benign findings, the woman's family history with pancreatic cancer prompted the surgeon to order a 70-gene panel test to assess if she had inherited a...

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