
Israel’s Rabin medical center has established the only special clinic in israel to perform genetic screening to treat and prevent cancer. The BRCA Multidisciplinary Clinic was created to serve patients with a high risk of cancer at Rabin Medical Center’s Davidoff Cancer Center. Since its commencement in 2011, the clinic has served thou - sands of women. Women who carry the BRCA gene mutation have up to an 80% chance of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer. More than 200 mutations have been identi - fied, three of which are typical to Ashkenazi Jews. There is a 2.5% risk of carrying this mutation. One out of every forty Jewish Ashkenazi women is a carrier and has a high probability of developing ovarian and/or breast cancer. At the Rabin Medical Center BRCA Clinic, patients receive counseling, screening and follow-up care. With breast cancer at such a high rate in Israel, affecting about 31% of women suffering from malignant dis eases, the BRCA Multidisciplinary Clinic is essential to saving lives.
The BRCA Multidisciplinary Clinic also treats men with prostate cancer. Research data indicates that men carry mutations in the BRCA 1 and 2 genes, similar to the syn - drome for breast and ovarian cancer in women. Three thousand new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in Israel annually, with four hundred fatalities.
In September, 2015, at age 51, Melissa Arnold was
diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her immediate
reaction was relief. She had felt awful for
months, with pain in her upper chest and
weird bloating in her stomach and legs.
For the first time in Israel, at Rabin Medical Center Stereotactic Body Radiation (SBRT) treatment is available for certain lung cancer patients using the Trilogy Linear Accelerator, the most advanced accelerator available today.
When 51 year old Ilana Golan found out that she was suffering from lymphoma and would now be a patient at the hospital where she herself worked, her world seemed to turn upside down.