can women get prostate cancer

- i'm about to take a test to see if i have a gene mutation, which tells me if i'm at risk of getting prostate cancer. (gentle music) my eldest sister, who's my half sister,

can women get prostate cancer, got breast cancer when she was 35. we don't really know why. we also asked whether we hadthat gene or how susceptible we were of getting cancerat a very young age.

- my mom had cancer,she had breast cancer. and ended up passingbecause of pancreatic cancer 'cause it traveled throughouther whole body, so, you know, i could bepositive for, you know, prostate cancer, i couldhave the gene for it, and, you know, i could even havethe gene for breast cancer, 'cause men can get breast cancer as well. - i'm very curious to find out how likely i am to get cancer.

will i pass this gene on? and if i have the gene,what can i do about it? - my family's predisposed to cancer, and i have other medical issues as well. you know, i wanna know for myself. - so color is apersonalized health service that helps analyze an individual's risk for the eight most commontypes of hereditary cancer. - step one: provide your saliva sample.

- ready for the gross part? - so the test itselfanalyzes 30 different genes, or dna, and if someone has a change, or what we call a mutationin one of those genes, it can really impact aperson's cancer risk, and hopefully help usidentify those cancers at a very early, treatable stage. or even help prevent thosecancers from happening. - i feel like any way this is good news,

and lesser good news,because if i find out early, at least i can do something about it. - so having a mutation does not mean that an individual hascancer or will get cancer, it just means that their risk for certain cancers are increased. so about 14% of all men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. it's a very commoncancer, so a man who takes

the color test can learn if he has an increased risk of prostate cancer. - so this is a very, very easy process. - it's all done. now we play the waiting game. (inspirational music) - alright robin, so your test came back that there were no mutations identified. so that's essentially good news,

it means that your result was negative. okay zach, so when youtook the color test, it came back negative, sowe didn't find any mutations in any of the 30 genes that we tested for. - that's a huge relief. it's a big, big relief. - it just means the riskof me getting cancer is lower, or the same, as everyone else? - that's right.- in this situation?

- now this test doesn'teliminate your risk, but it does mean that your hereditary risk for these eight cancers is not increased. - there was one specific question asking about, are you ofashkenazi jewish descent, and i am, is there a reason why-- - people of ashkenazi jewishdescent have a higher risk of having certain mutationsin some of our genes. - gotcha.

- so there's lots ofthings that individuals can do to help reduce their cancer risk. things like leading a healthy lifestyle, keeping a healthy weight, eating lots of fruits andvegetables, not smoking tobacco. - so eating right and exercising. i can do that. - this whole experiencewas really informative. a bit nerve-wracking, but overallreally, super informative.

- i mean, it's an oddthing for me to take, because i normally considermyself very young and healthy, so i don't really considerpossibilities of my doom. - it makes me think a lot abouthow i take care of myself. i'm comfortable in the skin i'm in, i'm comfortable with theweight i have on my body, but that doesn't mean i shouldn't wanna live a full, healthy life. - i think it just reminds me that

i still need to take care of myself. and it's not something ishould take for granted. overall, it's just good to stay informed. - if you can take it, iwould say take the test. if you're really truly concerned, i think this is a great way to find out if you're predisposed toany of these mutations. (upbeat soul music) just pay attention to how much you spit.

i overspat. (laughs) and it just, i think itkinda messed them up? i don't know, maybe it didn't.