Breast cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge has come under fire for suggesting breast cancer genes could be turned on or off by diet, but says she misspoke and is "sad" about the furious backlash.
"I should have said 'gene expression,'" Etheridge, 53, told
USA Today.
"From what I understand, there are nutritional and environmental factors that contribute to gene expression," she said.
Yet Etheridge doubled down on her controversial advice for women not to be tested if they have a genetic mutation that puts them at increased risk for breast cancer.
Etheridge told USA Today it's up to a woman if she wants to get tested, but "if someone asked me personally, I would not encourage them to get tested." She told the newspaper she got tested on the advice of a doctor.
The controversy erupted after Etheridge, in an interview in the current edition of
AARP Magazine, declared: "I have the BRCA2 gene but don't encourage women to get tested. Genes can be turned on and off. I turned my gene on with my very poor diet."
Twenty doctors, other breast cancer experts and leaders of FORCE, a support group for women with the genetic mutation, signed a letter to the editor of AARP Magazine saying that Etheridge "presents information that is dangerously misleading to your readers," and that it's "equally troubling" she seems to discourage women from genetic testing, USA Today reports.
The National Society of Genetic Counselors submitted a similar letter, and Etheridge has been excoriated by patients taking to social media to criticize her stance, USA Today reports.
"I was sad there was such a negative response to what I said," Etheridge told USA Today about the furor.
Everyone is born with two copies of genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2, but those with a mutation in one of the genes have a much higher lifetime risk of breast and ovarian cancers — up to an 87 percent lifetime risk for breast cancer, USA Today notes.
This is "not because the gene is 'turned on' but because they lack a working copy of one of the genes involved in preventing cancer development," the experts wrote, USA Today reports.
"At this point, we don't have a way to turn on or off BRCA1 or 2," said oncologist Susan Domchek, director of the Basser Research Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania. "While eating a healthy diet is a good idea for anyone, it does not impact what happens with the gene. There's nothing you can do to make that bad copy into a good copy."
Etheridge acknowledges that she shouldn't have used the words "turn genes on." She told USA Today that she wasn't blaming cancer victims either.
"The last thing I want to do is blame people," she said, adding that she firmly believes in the power of good nutrition.
"I knew all along there would be people who disagreed. I never wanted that to stop me from saying anything. I can't control the way people understand something."
She points out the controversy has an upside.
"If I can start a conversation, if there's thought and introspection on this subject, that's got to be a good thing," she said. "I know I'm walking a very fine line. Believe me, I know this is hard. I mean no ill will."
The issue has other celebrities weighing in as well, USA Today reports.
"The BRCA genes play a role. The lifestyle factors play a role," celebrity Dr. Dean Ornish, founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, told USA Today. "If we're just victims of our genes, then we're powerless."
Domchek insisted there's no hedging on genetic testing, however, saying it "can be a lifesaving intervention" because women with the mutation can choose stepped-up screening with breast MRIs as well as mammograms, preventive double mastectomies and surgery to remove their ovaries.
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