Cancer of the Breast

Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Genetic Testing

Pioneer in Embryo Genetic Testing and Gender Selection

- Cancer Prevention -

Cancer of the Breast

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies. Despite the fact that it seems to be detectable early compared to other types of cancer, the clinical course over the last half a century has improved only modestly. One major development, which changed the course of many diseases, is the recent progress in understanding the genetic link of many of them. There are a respectable number of inherited predispositions where the changes in the genetic material were identified. However, a large group of other diseases very likely have also genetic ties but they were simply not proven yet.

Breast cancer is believed to have a genetic basis. According to the current estimates, 10% to 15% of breast cancer patients have a family history of the disease. In some ethnic groups, like Ashkenasi Jews, women with two or more relatives who suffered breast cancer have more than 70% risk of developing the disease. Women in the general population under similar circumstances have over 50% risk to develop the disease.

Prevention of Breast Cancer

This page is not meant to discuss available treatments for breast cancer. It is meant to offer a way to prevent the transfer of the disease from parents to children. Because of recent developments in reproductive technologies, it is now possible to test an embryo resulted from an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) process, using the Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) technique.

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) makes possible to examine an embryo before its implantation into the mother’s uterus and study its genetic make up, inclusive of the sex of the future baby. Thus, women who have a strong family history of breast cancer can have oocytes (eggs) retrieved from her ovaries, fertilized with the husband’s sperm and after a few days have one cell removed from the developing embryo and tested for gender. Transferring only male embryos into the mother’s uterus, the transfer of the genetic changes that cause breast cancer may be interrupted.

Click here for more information on PGD

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