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It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. I'm Bridget Bergen in for Brian today.

When most of us think of the BRCA gene mutation, we think of a higher risk of breast cancer for women.

Decades of awareness campaigns have encouraged more and more women to test for the gene mutations

and to hopefully

make more informed decisions about their care. But more recently, the mutations have been linked

to other parts of the body and cancer it can cause there. Think the esophagus, stomach, skin, and

prostate. In fact, as many as 60% of men with mutations in the BRCA2 develop prostate cancer, and many men are far less aware that mutations in this gene can impact them at all.

Joining us now to explain the link between BRCA mutations and why more men should get tested is Kristen V. Brown, staff writer at the Atlantic covering health

and science. Kristen, welcome to WNYC. Hi, thanks for having me. And if you're just tuning it, listeners,

I wonder if we have any men listening out there that know they have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations.

How did you find out?

And what do you do with that information?

Maybe you've had one of these cancers linked to mutations in these genes.

Were you able to trace it back and see if, you know, it was linked to these mutations?

Or were you screened?

And have you had these, have you had these whether you had

these gene mutations or not what was that like what led you to ask or anything else you want to

report help us report this story 212-433 WNYC that's 212 433-9-692 You can call or text at that number.

And Kristen, before we get really into the details,

let's do some basic BRCA 101.

Some people refer to it by spelling out that acronym,

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