Leading geneticist, Dr Tal Sadeh, discusses the higher risk of breast cancer in the Jewish community, and urges people to get tested through the NHS’s new scheme.
While many readers may know Dr Tal Sadeh from his private luxury aesthetics business, DR.S Clinic in Prestwich, he is also a leading geneticist, having worked on genetic studies for 10 years and also taken part in several projects within the NHS. Tal specialises in breast cancer and has worked extensively with CR UK. Through this work, he focused on finding the genetic causes for cancer and finding new drugs which can target genetic conditions. He also created a programme which detects gene mutations, which is currently used in the NHS.
The Jewish community is at a much higher risk for developing cancer due to a genetic mutation, and Tal explains why: “We all have certain genes in our body, and some genes have mutations, where they’re not functioning properly. When we have children, half the DNA comes from the mother and half from the father. In the Jewish community, we’re very close-kit, so our genetic pool has actually not grown as wide as the general population. That has left us 10 times more likely to have the faulty gene which causes breast cancer, BRCA. The general population has a one in 400 chance, but in the Jewish community – specifically Ashkenazi Jewish – it’s one in 40.”
The NHS is now offering a free test for the faulty BRCA gene to anyone who has a Jewish grandparent. If you wish to take the test, you can speak to your GP, contact the NHS directly, or approach a number of charities such as Jnetics, and a test kit will be sent to your house. The test itself is simple to prepare, requiring you just to give a saliva sample and then post it back, much like the popular ancestry DNA kits available by post. Within a few weeks a genetic counsellor will contact you with the results and well as providing your GP with a copy. Should the test show that you do have the mutated gene, there are treatment options available to prevent the mutation from causing you to develop cancer.
Taking such a test can be a daunting prospect for some people, but Tal has some advice to offer to those who are unsure: “Speak to your GP. Speak to your friends and neighbours in the community. So many people have lost someone, or know someone who has, and just being able to actually prevent it and save lives is incredible. Prevention is better than a cure and the aim of the NHS is to reduce
the prevalence of breast cancer nationally. Knowledge is power when it comes to anything to do with genetics, and knowing this from an early stage is amazing. It’s not only about you as an individual, it’s about your whole family. It’s about your daughters, and granddaughters, and every generation after you as well, because it’s genetically inherited.”