Understanding Your Risk of Inherited Cancers
How do you know if you are at risk for an inherited form of cancer? Answer these questions. If your answer is yes for any of them, talk with your doctor about your risk for cancer.
- Did anyone in your family get cancer at an age thought to be unusually young for that type of cancer? (For instance, 45 or younger for breast, uterine or ovarian cancer and younger than 50 for colon cancer)
- Does more than one relative on the same side of your family have the same type of cancer?
- Is there a clustering of cancers known to be caused by a single gene mutation in your family? Clusters are two or more types of cancers that have a clear genetic link. These are known cancer clusters.
- breast and ovarian cancer
- colon, uterine, and ovarian cancers
- melanoma and pancreatic cancer
- Has anyone in your family had more than one type of primary cancer? This is important if the cancers they had are in the same cancer cluster (such as breast and ovarian). Primary cancer is a new cancer that did not spread from another part of the body.
- Have you been told that your ethnic background puts you at greater risk for inheriting genetic mutations that increase your risk for cancer? For instance, people of Eastern European Jewish ancestry are at greater risk of carrying a breast/ovarian cancer gene and a uterine/ovarian/colon cancer gene.