The JAMA study "confirms what smaller studies have suggested in the past: Women who have a family history of breast cancer can greatly reduce their chances of getting the disease by having a double mastectomy ... ," NPR adds. "In an editorial accompanying the study, Virginia Kaklamani, an oncologist at Northwestern University, says lives can be saved if women have genetic testing. 'A lot of times I see these women having had a very preventable type of breast cancer. Preventable because I can identify the fact that they had a higher risk of getting breast cancer,' she says" (Neighmond, 8/31).

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