does cancer run in your family ?

Hi Fatima,

I PM'd you with my experience and thought I would copy it here for others, but the main point for anyone who feels that their family history puts them at higher risk is to speak with a Licensed Genetic Counselor. A GC will be able to tell you if you are in fact at risk and for which syndromes (hereditary breast cancer is not always caused by BRCA). You should bring as much medical detail as possible for your siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Include significant non-cancer information too - heart disease, diabetes, bleeding disorders, dental abnormalities, benign growths, physical and mental development differences, birthmarks that run in the family, etc.

my original response to Fatima... I don't have a big family so it wasn't history that prompted my testing - it was the fact that I had two separate primary cancers (a sign of a genetic cause of cancer) and very young presentations of both (another sign). Do you have a genetic counselor? I think you would benefit from speaking with one. While Lynch is associated with uterine cancer, it is usually endometrial carcinoma, not LMS. Sarcomas are sometimes found in Li Fraumeni families (TP53). Usually, someone who's already had cancer (known as a proband) should be the one tested. It sounds like your mom hasn't had cancer so it would be more informative for your uncle to be tested. It's possible that your grandmother, aunt and uncle all had a BRCA mutation but your mom didn't inherit it (which would be great and would make it impossible for you to have the family's mutation) which is why she tested negative, or it's Lynch or Li Fraumeni or something they haven't even discovered yet. A GC should be able to help you navigate through the process and determine your path forward. I'm sorry you have to worry about this at such a young age.

I'm sorry Fatima - I didn't realize that a GC isn't an option for you. I did find this link on the World Health Org website with a pretty impressive woman in Bahrain. http://www.who.int/genomics/professionals/clinicalgeneticists/en/index2.html

I don't know if this information is current, but maybe you could try contacting her? Her email address is listed. Many scientists have trouble finding appropriate study subjects and love to hear from people who fall into their area of expertise. Your mom is lucky to have you looking out for her! And you're smart to look out for yourself!

Mother, 82, colon cancer

Uncle, teenager in 1930, Juvenile Hodgkins, cured by rads and lived to 85

Uncle, 59, lung cancer, smoked like a chimney

Those are all I can remember. I was diagnosed with TNBC at 64.

Yes, they were my mother's brothers. No cancer on the paternal side.

Maternal grandmother - colon cancer (once in her 50's, again in her 70's)

Maternal grandfather - prostate cancer (metastatic, diagnosed in his late 60's)

Maternal uncle - prostate cancer (in his late 70's)

Mother - breast cancer (at 75)

My mom only had the one brother, so that's pretty much everyone on that side. No cancer on my dad's side at all. I am BRCA negative (tested because am premenopausal and an Ashkenazi Jew).

Immediate family - both parents and one of two siblings plus myself, so 4 out of 5 have had cancer.

Grandparents - 3 of 4 died of cancer (the 4th died very young).

I have lots of aunts and uncles and cousins and within that group, quite a number have had cancer.

I suppose it's a lot, but you have to consider that in North America, 1 out of every 2 men and 1 out of every 3 women will get cancer during their lifetime. So I always find it strange when someone comes here and says "there is no cancer in my family". I always wonder how their family got so lucky because that's certainly not the norm.

Just Mom and me...

Mom was dx'd with BC at age 60 - in 1982. We never knew what kind, as there was no extensive testing back then. She had a UMX on the left side, and no other treatment. She passed at the age of 88, with no recurrence of cancer, from unrelated causes.

I was dx'd at age 60, on the left side, too. My treatment was a BMX and five years of an AI. I plan to follow in her footsteps and die of old age, with no recurrence of cancer.

(Our family has more incidence of heart disease than cancer...)