Nina Garcia — “Project Runway” host and editor-in-chief at Elle Magazine — went public this year with her decision to have a preventative mastectomy. Garcia made the choice after learning that she tested positive for BARD1 in 2015 — BARD1 interacts with the BRCA1 gene and significantly increases a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer.
In February, Garcia, 53, went public with an op-ed published in Elle, and allowed us to share her thoughts here with the SurvivorNet family as well. In a new interview with Good Morning America on Thursday, Garcia said that she was originally devastated to find out that her breast cancer risk was so high — but she eventually came around to see finding out was a good thing. “I kind of switched,” Garcia said. “I was like, ‘How lucky … that I was able to know this so early on.'”
Read More“The message is the technology and the science is there, especially for breast cancer,” Garcia said. “For that woman at home that hasn’t had her mammogram, that hasn’t had a sonogram, to get tested. For that women at home that has a history of breast cancer in their family to get the BRCA gene test.”
A woman who carries a BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation has a significantly higher chance of developing cancer than a woman who does not. It is estimated that 72% of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation and 69% of women who inherit a harmful BRCA2 mutation will develop breast cancer, compared to 12% of women in the general population, according to the American Cancer Society. Though it’s not an easy choice, a huge number of women who find out they carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation do make the decision to have a prophylactic mastectomy.
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