This weekend, Chris Evert tweeted that she was diagnosed with early-stage (Stage 1C) ovarian cancer, which is associated with an outstanding survival rate. This news is especially good because most people diagnosed with ovarian cancer are diagnosed at stage III or IV, which are associated with poor survival rates. Apart from the favorable prognosis for Chris Evert, it is the story behind the story that the medical world should be listening to with care.

In February 2020, Chris’s younger sister, Jeanne Evert Dubin, died of ovarian cancer at age 62. Before her death, Jeanne had genetic testing, but was not found to have a pathogenic, or disease-causing mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes and perhaps the other genes known to be associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer (there are many such genes – BRCA1 and BRCA2 are only two of them). However, Jeanne was reported to have a “variant of uncertain significance” (VUS) in BRCA1.

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