JBRCA

Jewish BRCA Testing Programme

BRCA refers to two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, that everyone possesses, these genes help repair damaged DNA. People carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA2 with specific variant changes have an increased risk of developing several cancers, in particular breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer.

JBRCA

People with Jewish ancestry have a 1 in 40 higher chance of carrying a variant change in the BRCA gene compared to the general population (1 in 300 are carriers).

Despite having a higher chance of carrying a BRCA variant change compared to the general population, only approximately 11% of Jewish individuals with this change have been identified.

The aim of this programme is to test as many people as possible with Jewish origin (Askenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi etc…) to understand if they have the variant change.  Knowing this allows individuals to access a range of options available on the NHSE to help manage and reduce cancer risk, as as well as avoid passing on the faulty gene to children.

 

BRCA gene changes

If you have the specific variant changes in one of the BRCA genes, your risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer is greatly increased.

Up to 40% of ovarian cancer cases, and 10% of breast cancer cases in the Jewish community are associated with a BRCA gene fault.

Men with BRCA mutations have an increased risk of getting prostate, breast or pancreatic cancer.

For example, 12 or 13 men in every 100 will get prostate cancer before the age of 80. But out of every 100 men who have the BRCA2 gene mutation, 20 will develop prostate cancer

The project

The three-year Jewish BRCA testing programme, which started in 2023, is funded and commissioned by the NHS National Cancer Programme.

There are several partners participating in the programme working with the North Thames Genomic Medicine Service, both within the NHS, research and charity organisations:

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  • The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)
  • The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
  • Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
  • The North West Genomic Laboratory Hub
  • Jnetics
  • Chai Cancer Care

This new programme provides an unprecedented opportunity to better identify individuals with a BRCA variant change in the Jewish community in England. This will prevent more cancers and save more lives.

In order to achieve the aims of the project the team are:

  • Creating an ongoing engagement campaign to encourage the Jewish population to come forward for a genetic test for BRCA. This campaign will be targeted at areas with high Jewish populations, but testing will be available to people with Jewish origin across England.
  • Developing a genetic testing pathway to provide full BRCA1/ BRCA2 gene sequencing to all Jewish adults that come forward for a test. Genetic counselling will be available to all. Those who test positive will be enrolled into appropriate treatment and surveillance pathways for downstream clinical management.
  • Delivering an evaluation of the project to understand how many tests were delivered, how many BRCA mutation carriers were identified and then enrolled into downstream management pathways and the overall impact on number of cancers prevented or diagnosed early

Milestones so far

01/2023
Soft Launch of the Jewish BRCA Programme

 

04/2023
Community engagement

  • Over 50 primary care and 100 secondary care organisations
  • Worked with HCPs across the region
  • Engaged with local community groups such as synagogue movements, cancer/genomics charities, Charedi organisations, Rabbis and Rebbetzins across the religious spectrum

 

07/2023
Increased demand
Private lab testing begins to support the large numbers of requested tests

 

01/2024
Hard Launch of the Jewish BRCA Programme

  • over 12,000 expressions of interest (EOI) registered in the first month (>23,000 EOI overall)
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