Monica Oldenbourg Keck (left) and her daughter, Cecilia Corso, share the BRCA mutation that makes them vulnerable to breast and ovarian cancer. Corso's desire for information helped expand UT Medicine San Antonio's genetic counseling program.
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By Elizabeth Allen

The UT Health Science Center San Antonio is known for its missions of providing care to patients, educating the next generation of health care providers and conducting research to improve care. However, occasionally a patient will have a more direct hand in shaping care at the Health Science Center. Cecilia Corso is one of those people.

Corso learned in 2009 that she had inherited from her mother the BRCA mutation that makes her vulnerable to breast and ovarian cancer. She didn’t know where to turn. Then she found Martha Thomas, the genetic counselor at UT Medicine San Antonio, the medical practice of the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center.

“It was so scary to get that diagnosis,” Corso said. “Martha could give me some information.”

Genetic counseling
Thomas, who works out of the Health Science Center’s Department of Pediatrics with support from the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, credits Corso with helping her to extend her genetic counseling expertise to adults.

“She called me, almost in tears. She had just tested positive and had no one to talk to. I said ‘Just stop by my office,’” Thomas said. “I’ll see a patient in the parking lot. I don’t care, as long as they get the information they need.”

The meeting with Corso convinced Thomas that there was a greater unmet need for genetic counseling in the community, and she worked with the Cancer Therapy & Research Center to provide information about hereditary cancers that can strike adults.

“Cecilia was THE reason the genetic counseling program was expanded,” Thomas said.

Local chapter of FORCE
Meanwhile, Corso launched the local chapter of FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered.

FORCE is dedicated to helping anyone with a BRCA mutation or family history of cancer, and Corso now works to build local awareness of the support the group can provide.

“We want to get the word out that there is a place women can go to learn about their options and talk to others who have been through this,” Corso said.