Sisters Have Mastectomies to Prevent Cancer

Three sisters, Stephanie Cone and her sisters Terri and Kim Meche, underwent genetic testing and learned that they each carried a gene that made them susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer.  They chose to be proactive with this news – all three had double mastectomies on the same day at the University of Washington Medical Center.  They were on the Today show to tell their story.

As it turns out, none of them had cancer but their mother battled breast, colorectal and ovarian cancer for more than 15 years and eight other relatives had had cancer, including her mother, grandmother and six sisters.

“We wanted to be preventive,” Kim Meche said to Today anchor, Meredith Vieira.

“This is an amazing trio of women — very strong women,” Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC’s chief medical editor, told Vieira. “These smart women sat down and said, ‘You know, the pieces of the puzzle look like we might be at risk.’ And then they did two very smart things: They went in to get blood tests and they sat down with a genetic counselor. There has to be a very methodical approach to this.”

Terri and Stephanie, who have five children between them, had hysterectomies after their mother was treated for ovarian cancer.  Kim did not have the surgery and was diagnosed several years later with ovarian cancer. When doctors went in to remove it, they found her fallopian tubes had also become cancerous.

The story stressed that despite the fact these women tested positive for the gene, it didn’t necessarily mean that they were guaranteed a diagnosis of cancer.  Further, the reverse is true – not having the gene doesn’t guarantee safety either.

It’s a very complicated issue and, in their situation, I suppose I would want to get tested in order to know where I stand.  These three women are very brave.