Never had a chance. It's in my jeans.Updated 1/24/18 3:30pm

December 23rd 2017                                                          Back to In the Beginning

Well, Heegs have had a long and cozy relationship with cancer. We could trademark BRCA2, and my niece Erica, who is a patent attorney, will back me up.  Any judge (especially our pricey Nevada judges) wouldn't fail (accept a bribe) to see our claim.

Nevada judicial candidate bribery allegation

My cousin Tom has been really digging  up every birth, death, marriage certificate, that he can find. He's also a DNA genealogist and where he's been able to get the samples, has found BRCA2 gene in lots of family member's jeans.

Tom put together a chart a couple years ago showing the definites, maybes and unknowns.

Tom archived this email from my sister, Margaret Ann, to my cousin Pat, which indicates Thomas Edward Heeg also had bladder cancer. Edward Thomas Heeg had metastatic prostate cancer. If I remember correctly, Uncle Tom eventually had a colostomy, so I'm not sure if that was metastatic from bladder to bowel or what.  Poppy's (Thomas M. Heeg, Jr.) spread from pancreas to lung.   

"---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Margaret Weiner <margaretaw@gmail.com> Date: Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 3:59 PM Subject: This weekend To: Pat Duffield <kenpatduff@hotmail.com>  

Hi Pat, I thought I would send this list along for your health records.  It certainly is a daunting list.   Ed - I don't remember what type of cancer he beat 

Tom - Bladder 

John - Prostate 

Chris - Pancreatic 

Robbie - Prostate 

Mimi - Bladder & Pancreatic 

Poppy - Pancreatic 

Pat - Ovarian 

Gerry - Melanoma 

Margaret - Basal cell & breast   

It was wonderful seeing you this weekend.  I still can't get over that we were in the same port at the same time.  It would have been too strange to run into you in Ketchican, Alaska when we don't see each other often enough when we both are in New York.   I hope to see you soon.   Love, Margaret"

Now that everyone above mentioned has passed, we can add:

Margaret (Mimi) Heeg- bladder and pancreatic. She beat bladder for 20 years before she passed.
Tom Zito - colon - beat it
John T. Heeg, Jr. - bladder...gonna beat it.


Poppy's grandfather Leopold Bauer died from liver cancer, metastatic to stomach.

Can't catch a break, Thomas M. Heeg, Sr. added nephritis to the mix. Don't think there's a genetic component, but who knows.  Just coincidental that I got hydronephrosis from the bladder cancer.

Tom Z's explanation of the DNA he researches:

The BRCA2 genetic defect is located primarily in a section of chromosome 13 (ch 13).  Our genome contains 23 sets of chromosomes which are numbered 1-22 (called "autosomes" or atDNA), and the 23rd set are called sex chromosomes, which are designated as XX for women, and XY for men.  So, in your case, you have one set of chromosomes 1-22 plus an X from your mother, and one set of chromosomes 1-22 from your father plus a Y.  At conception the two strands of DNA (one from sperm, the other from egg) zip-up, like a zipper- one side inherited from the father, the other side inherited from the mother. I think of the sex chromosomes as the first set of teeth at the base of a zipper, the 22 pairs then zip together to become one human cell nucleus, which divides and grows into an embryo.

In the case of Leopold, if he is indeed the most distant BRCA2 carrier we've identified, there was likely a segment, located towards the beginning of the second half of his chromosome 13, which he passed down to his daughter Mary (along with a copy of his X chromosome, intact, which made her female).  When Poppy was conceived, as luck would have it, his father passed that segment of ch 13 down to him (along with a copy of his Heeg Y chromosome, intact).  Then Poppy (Thomas M. Heeg, Jr) passed that segment on to some or all of his children. 

There is a third type of DNA we look at, which AncestryDNA does not sequence (decode), which is mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).   The sperm cell contains only the DNA strand from the father, consisting of a random 50 percent from each of his autosomes (1-22), usually about 23-27% from each of his parents, and a copy of his X or his Y.  The female's egg cell is larger and contains the nucleus (containing 50% of her atDNA 1-22, plus an X which is a random combination of her father and her mother's X chromosomes), and also contains mitochondria. Mitochondria has its own DNA and, since it exists in egg cells but not sperm cells, we always inherit mtDNA from our mothers. So mtDNA is another type of DNA, but it's usually not helpful for genealogy because it doesn't mix (recombination).  mtDNA gets handed down from mother to child unchanged for tens of thousands of years- so it's interesting to study for ancient migration patterns of your maternal line.  All mtDNA haplotypes can be traced back to sub-Saharan Africa where the first humans evidently came into existence.

December 29, 2017

Here's a partial genetic test of the tumor...not reflective of what is in one of my normal cells necessarily:

Per Tom:

"That's interesting what he said about BRCA2 not being in the tumor. My understanding is that it is in the nucleus of most of our cells, and can be found in skin, saliva, blood, tissue, hair follicles, bone, etc. The company that does medical grade genetic testing for the BRCA1&2 mutation is Color. That test requires a physician's order but they have on-site physicians who can place the order for you.

The test is currently $99 https://www.color.com/product/brca-genetic-test and may or may not be covered by insurance.

My understanding is that AncestryDNA test does sequence the regions where the BRCA mutations can be found but they do not report on it. It is in the raw file that they provide to you for download. When you get your AncestryDNA raw file, there are a few things you can do with it, one of them is to upload it to a company called Prometheus which provides genetic health-related reports based on the raw sequence data found in the AncestryDNA zip file. They show several cancer-related mutations. with the caveat that the test is not "medical grade" since the main purpose is genealogical and they do not provide physician counseling (like color dot com does).

So when a Prometheus report shows potential genetic health concerns, they recommend following up with a physician who, if they agree with the concern, will order the color dot com test. Color owns the intellectual property rights to medical lab testing and diagnosis of BRCA 1 and 2 mutations, which is why all the "medical grade" tests are sent out to them.

January 11, 2018

Getting ready for my genetic testing and counseling and having to list all the Heegs, Honer's, and Poniard's who fell victim to some cancer is a deeply reflective experience.

	Current Age	Age at Death	Ever had cancer	Cancer type	Age at cancer diagnosis	Notes/Other causes of death
Mother – Margaret St Clare Honer		62	No			Alzheimers
Father – John Thomas Heeg, Sr		83	Yes	Prostate	82
Mother’s Mother – Margaret Delaney		42	No			Tuberculosis
Mother’s Father – Louis William Honer, Jr		68	Yes	Throat	64
Father’s Mother – Marie Bischoff		104	No			Old Age
Father’s Father – Thomas Michael Heeg		86	Yes	Pancreatic	86
Sister – Margaret Ann Heeg Weiner		66	Yes	Breast, basel cell	61
Nephew – Matthew Weiner	38		No			Marfan’s Syndrome
Daughter – Lisa Danielle Heeg Zia	35		No
Son – Andrew Tyler Heeg	30		No
Mother’s Brother – Louis William Honer, III		75	No			Stroke
Mother’s Brother – John Ponard Honer		76	Yes	Throat
Father’s Brother – Edward Thomas Heeg		75	Yes	Prostate
Father’s Brother – Thomas Edward Heeg		70	Yes	Bowel, bladder
Father’s Brother – Christian Thomas Heeg		70	Yes	Pancreatic
Father’s Brother – Robert Joseph Heeg		93	Yes	Prostate	60-70	Old age
Father’s Brother – Joseph Thomas Heeg		18	No			Shellfire WWII
Father’s Sister – Margaret Marie Heeg		80	Yes	Bladder, Pancreatic	55, 80
Father, Cousin – Thomas Zito	49		Yes	Bowel	48	BRCA2 mutation
Father, Cousin – Lorraine Heeg Zito	73		No			Abnormal lumps, non malignant removed from breasts, BRCA2 mutation
Father, Cousin Patricia Ann Heeg Duffield		70	Yes	Ovarian
Father, Cousin Christine Heeg	69		No
Father, Cousin Geraldine Heeg		50	Yes	Melanoma	45
Father, Cousin Jane Heeg Conrad		60	No			Stroke
Father, Cousin Diane Heeg		27	No			Overdose
Father, Cousin Robert Joseph Heeg	63		No
Father’s Great grandfather Leopold Bauer		68	Yes	Liver and Stomach
Father’s Great Uncle – Charles Heeg, Sr		65	Yes	Lung
Father’s cousin, Charles Heeg, Jr		67	Yes	Prostate	62
Father’s cousin, Robyn Heeg Bell	61		No			Negative for BRCA2
Father’s uncle, John Heeg		52	Yes	Leukemia
Mother’s aunt, Ellen Honer Wolf		80	Yes	Breast	40-55?
Mother’s aunt, Irene Honer Darby		71	Yes	Bone?		Had Lupus, was bedridden, cancer was discovered when pelvis broke and cancer found all over
Mother’s cousin, Arlyne Honer		70	Yes	Breast
Mother’s cousin, Dorothy Darby Larkin		62	Yes	Lung	54	Two bouts
Mother’s cousin, Julia Poniard		old	Yes	Breast
Mother’s cousin, Nora Poniard		old	Yes	Breast
Mother’s cousin, Anthony Poniard		53	Yes	Lung, Adrenal, Brain	53
Mother’s cousin, Michael Poniard		56	Yes	Leukemia	53
Mother’s great grandmother Bridget Eagle Ponard		61	Yes	Uterine cancer

 

January 24th, 2018 3:30pm

Big thanks to Ann Poniard regarding the victims in the Michael Poniard branch of the family still in Galway, Ireland. Before she passed so tragically, Rita Lindley Ham Corbin had sent me a bunch of documents related to the Ponards that I'd forgotten about.  Among them was Bridget Eagle Ponard's death certificate which earns her a place on the list.

Catch the wind

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