What Is a Previvor? Hereditary Breast Cancer Risk Explained

A previvor is someone who has not had cancer but has learned they carry an inherited gene change that raises their risk. National Previvor Day, held on the last Wednesday of September, recognizes the people living with that knowledge and the choices that come with it.

What genes are we talking about?

The best known are BRCA1 and BRCA2. These genes normally help repair damaged DNA. When one copy has a harmful change, cells are more likely to build up the errors that lead to cancer. Other genes, such as PALB2, CHEK2 and ATM, also raise breast cancer risk, and changes linked to Lynch syndrome raise the risk of colon and uterine cancer.

How much does a BRCA mutation raise the risk?

About 1 in 8 women in the general population will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. For women with a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 change, estimates of lifetime breast cancer risk range from about 38% to 87%, and ovarian cancer risk from about 16% to 63%, depending on the gene and family history. Men with BRCA changes face a higher risk of breast and prostate cancer, and BRCA2 is also linked to pancreatic cancer and melanoma.

Some men learn they carry a BRCA2 change only after their own diagnosis, as one survivor shared in My Journey as a Male Breast Cancer Survivor. BRCA2 changes are found more often in men with breast cancer than in women with the disease, as CURE explained in Comparing Male and Female Breast Cancer.

How common are these mutations?

About 1 in 300 people in the U.S. carries a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 change. The rate is about 1 in 40 among people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Each child of a carrier has a 50% chance of inheriting the change.

Who should consider genetic testing?

Talk with your doctor or a genetic counselor if you have a close relative with breast cancer before 50, ovarian or pancreatic cancer at any age, or male breast cancer; several relatives on the same side of the family with breast, ovarian, prostate or pancreatic cancer; a known mutation in the family; or Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

What can previvors do?

• Screen earlier and more often, often with yearly breast MRI in addition to mammograms.
• Consider medicines that can lower breast cancer risk.
• Consider surgery, such as removing the breasts or the ovaries and fallopian tubes, which can sharply lower risk. Timing often depends on age and family plans.

There is no single right choice. Two sisters with the same result may decide differently, as one CURE reader shared in her essay.

For another previvor, learning she carried a BRCA1 mutation became a reason to choose prevention. She wrote about that decision in Broken Yet Unbreakable: My Previvor Journey and the Power of Symbolism.

The bottom line

Learning you carry an inherited gene change can be frightening, but it also gives you something most people with cancer never get: time to act before the disease develops. Whether you choose closer screening, medication, surgery or a mix of all three, the right plan is the one that fits your risk, your age, your family plans and your life, and it can change as your circumstances do.

You don't have to make these decisions alone. A genetic counselor can explain what your results mean, and groups such as FORCE (Facing Hereditary Cancer Empowered) connect previvors who have faced the same choices. If cancer runs in your family, asking your doctor about genetic testing is a good first step, for yourself and for the relatives who may share your risk.

References

1. "My Sister and I Share a BRCA2 Mutation. We Didn't Make the Same Choices," Victoria Lanz, CURE, September 2026. Accessed Sept. 30, 2026.
2. "Broken Yet Unbreakable: My Previvor Journey and the Power of Symbolism," CURE, June 2026. Accessed Sept. 30, 2026.
3. "My Journey as a Male Breast Cancer Survivor," CURE, June 2026. Accessed Sept. 30, 2026.
4. "Comparing Male and Female Breast Cancer," CURE, July 2026. Accessed Sept. 30, 2026.
5. "Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC)," North Carolina Cancer Genetics Reference. Accessed Sept. 30, 2026.
6. "Large Study Verifies Cancer Risk for Women Carrying BRCA1 or BRCA2 Mutations," National Cancer Institute, 2017. Accessed Sept. 30, 2026.

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