Did Angelina Jolie's famous editorial in the New York Times a year ago inspire an overemphasis on genetic risk in breast cancer? Or has it saved lives by bringing the issue out into the open?
When you're told you carry a high-breast-cancer-risk genetic mutation and that the best way to reduce that risk is to have both breasts removed, how do you decide what to do? And just how high is 'high risk', anyway?
How important are 'cancer risk genes' when BRCA mutations only account for a minority of breast cancers?
This podcast features interviews on those questions with the five people - three scientific experts, one policy expert, one former patient - who spoke at the Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s event 'Relative Risk: Breast Cancer and Genetics', part of the Wellcome Trust-supported project 'Breast Cancer: Chances, Choices and Genetics'.
Listen to the podcast using the player below.
| 00:00 | James Brooks: Introduction |
| 01:45 | Professor Diana Eccles: The genetics of breast cancer |
| 06:40 | Professor Gareth Evans: How risk can be misconstrued |
| 11:05 | Professor Gordon Wishart: Preventative double mastectomies - the impact on surgery services |
| 14:40 | Baroness Delyth Morgan: The breast cancer charity perspective |
| 18:00 | Kerry Andrew: The patient perspective |
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