Breast Cancer : Attacks Mother & Son

It was heartbreaking enough when Lynda Skillom learned she had breast cancer. But when her 29-year-old son Cedric also was diagnosed with the disease, it was devastating. Both mother and son, residents of the Chicago area, discovered they carried a mutation of the breast cancer gene BRCA2 , putting them at a greater risk for getting the disease. Both had double mastectomies. The two celebrated being cancer-free on Mother's Day.

Lynda, 55, had already lost her mother to ovarian cancer when she was 12 and watched her two sisters battle breast cancer in the 1980's. Finding out that she had cancer too, and that her only child had inherited the gene was traumatic. Lynda said she felt sad that he had to go through that process and overwhelming guilt that I had passed the gene on to him.
"I had passed this deadly disease to my son. Not a good feeling."Until Cedric was diagnosed , his mom says she knew little about men having breast cancer. "I didn't know a man who had it."

Breast cancer is rare in men : Only about 1 percent of all cases in the country involve male patients and only about 2,000 new cases of male breast cancer are discovered each year, according to the Susan G. Koman for the Cure organization. The death rate is also low : about 0.3 per 100,000 patients compared to 24 per 100,000 for women. Even more uncommon is for a mother and her son to be battling the disease together. Lynda was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the illness in May 2008, about a year before her son - who doctors suggested be treated for the mutated gene after and abnormality was detected.
"We sometimes forget that diseases which are common in the female population do reach our male offspring," said Robinson.
Men who carry the mutated BRCA2 gene have a 5 to 10 percent of getting breast cancer at some point in their lives, a much higher chance than those who don't, according to the American Cancer Society.

Lynda underwent chemotherapy before having a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy as a BRCA2 mutation also ups the risk of developing ovarian cancer. Cedric's cancer was caught early enough that he didn't need treatment other than the double mastectomy. The procedure, also called a bilateral mastectomy, reduces a patient's risk of cancer returning to about 1 percent.

The Skilloms' story illustrates the importance of early detection and knowledge of family and genetic history, according to Robinson.
"The take-take home message is that one really needs to sit down and identify what illnesses run in a family," Robinson said. Lynda says she's grateful for the technology that allowed her son's cancer to be caught and treated early - and will mean his two young children can be tested for the gene as adults. Her family's ordeal has been long and harrowing, but she says she has learned a lot and hopes others will learn from it too.
My spin on doctor's check-ups: Your best defence is a good offence : knowing as much as you can so you can be proactive. It's a growing process. Be vigilant over what's happening in your body. Don't take your health for granted - or your family's... but hey, that's just me.
Kicking back and keeping it real.