Preventive Mastectomy

最近ToThe Best Of Our Knowledgeというラジオ番組のpodcastを聞いているのですが、その中でとても気になったインタビューがあったので英作文にしてみました。

Preventive Mastectomy

There are vast variety of diseases we may catch during our lifetimes. Cancers are is most likely to draw cause concerns because it is one of the biggest causes of death in the world. The  discovery of effective prevention such as vaccine for cervical cancer is a boon to everyone. Although However, excessive prevention does more harm than good. I came across an article that stirs my interest on this issue.

Jessica Queller, who is the author of a famous TV program “Gossip Girl”, revealed that she had her breasts removed in 2005 even though    she didn’t have breast cancer. She took the gene test for cancers after seeing her mother struggling for with ovarian cancer. She had tested positive for the BRCA1 mutation that is famous for causing breast cancer when she was 34 years old. She was diagnosed to have an 87% possibility chance of developing breast cancer in the future. She was terribly shocked and ignored  the result for about six months. However, some of her friends and  doctors encouraged her to consider the problem, and she decided to take  preventive mastectomy. And now, she is planning on having her  ovaries  removed at the age of 40 because she has a 46% of possibility chance of developing ovarian cancer. Although  she has decided to have preventive  surgery, she is single, and she wants to have her own children before the surgery.

Is her decision too extreme? I  can’t blame her because her mother passed away after suffering from  ovarian cancer. She might have been traumatized by that experience.  Besides, her mother has already passed away when she needed her  mother’s advice. There were alternatives of to preventive double mastectomy such as intensive medical check up, but the  fact that she has gene mutation caused unbearable mental turmoil to  her.

In most cases, medical progress is a bliss to everyone. Although However, gene examination without effective treatments has huge drawbacks. We  should not use it because we don’t know how to fix the mutation. It  will cause mental turmoil rather than benefit. Technology itself  doesn’t do harm, but how to make use of it is an issue that needs to be  well considered.

”ゴシップガール”の作者である、 Jessica Quellerさんが34歳の時に予防的に両側の乳房除去手術を受けたお話です。お母さんが卵巣癌で亡くなったため、彼女は癌の遺伝子診断をうけました。すると乳がんになる確率87%、卵巣がんになる確率46%と診断されたのです。彼女は悩んだすえ、予防的に乳房除去手術、再建術を受けました。さらに彼女は40歳になったら予防的卵巣摘出手術を受けるつもりだそうです。

“それは極端すぎるんじゃないの？”と最初は思いました。でも彼女のお母さんの苦しみは想像を絶する程だったそうで、あんな思いをするくらいなら手術を受けようと思った･･･というくだりには考えさせられました。

この癌の遺伝子診断は日本ではポピュラーではないようですけど、もし受けられるとしても私は受けないと思います。遺伝子変異を治す根本的な治療がないのに検査を受けて陽性だったとしたら･･･。きっとジェシカさんのような精神的苦しみを味わうと思います。もしかすると私が癌の経験者だったり、身近に癌で苦しんでいる人をまのあたりにしたら予防的手術を受けたいと思うかもしれません。

Jessicaさんの関連記事はコチラ