November 2019, Issue 6
The BRCAlert:
2019 Year-in-Review
Happy Thanksgiving, friends of Oneinforty . We are so thankful for your support and continued interest in our efforts to prevent cancer and detect it in its earliest, most treatable stage.

This issue of The BRCAlert features some of the many highlights from 2019. Please do share our e-newsletter with your friends and family this holiday season.
Events Geared Toward Patients
This year we surpassed 1,000 people reached via in-person educational events since Oneinforty's inception in 2017. These events include symposia and "Shabbat Talks" at synagogues, as well as Oneinforty information tables at events hosted by our hospital partners. This testimonial from one of our symposium attendees sums up our mission in action:

"I don't know if we would have felt the same urgency to be tested for the BRCA gene mutations without the information that you made available to our synagogue's community. We discovered that a BRCA gene mutation runs in our family and almost certainly caused a beloved family member to lose her life to ovarian cancer. It turns out that all of our adult children are BRCA+. Now we can take action to effectively manage our cancer risk. Oneinforty's work is lifesaving."

Many thanks to Temple Emanuel and Temple Reyim in Newton, MA, Temple Emek Shalom in Ashland, OR and Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead, MA for hosting Oneinforty symposia this year.
Patient Advocacy at the National Level
We continue to work tirelessly at the national level to push for and support population-based screening for the BRCA gene mutations for all men and women who have Ashkenazi heritage.

In April, on behalf of our Prevent Hereditary Cancer Coalition, we submitted this evidence-based request to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) asking NCCN to advise primary care physicians to offer BRCA gene mutation testing to all men and women who have at least one Eastern European Jewish grandparent, regardless of known family history of the BRCA cancers. NCCN is currently reviewing our request.

Oneinforty's national partnership with the BFOR Study has grown considerably this year. The BFOR Study is a g roundbreaking medical research study that offers free BRCA testing to men and women who have at least one Eastern European Jewish grandparent, are 25 or older and live in Massachusetts or Metro Los Angeles, Philadelphia or New York City. Oneinforty continues to encourage primary care physicians and patients to participate in the BFOR Study.
Over the summer, we collaborated with the BFOR Study to develop a public service announcement (PSA) to raise awareness of the Jewish-cancer connection and equip people to take action. The PSA features Oneinforty ambassadors sharing their BRCA stories as well as the physicians who are conducting the BFOR Study.

Next week's email from Oneinforty will debut the PSA, a powerful tool to instruct the community on how to make more informed healthcare decisions and reduce their cancer risks. Please keep your eyes open for the email and share it widely.
Public Awareness Campaign
Oneinforty's programs and services continue to draw considerable media attention.

In August , just prior to beginning a course of chemotherapy, Oneinforty Founder and Co-executive Director Lauren Corduck was interviewed by Carey Goldberg, WBUR's health and science reporter and host of CommonHealth. The public radio segment was shared widely--locally by WBUR and nationally by NPR.

This year Oneinforty was also featured by WCVB-TV Channel 5 Boston, JewishBoston.com, Oregon Jewish Life and The American Journal of Managed Care . All media coverage of Oneinforty is archived on the News page of our website.
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Oneinforty | 508.330.8807 | allisono@oneinforty.org | www.oneinforty.org