Why not talk about your family's history of cancer during one of those family get-together you have?
It might be one of the most important family discussions you might ever have.
Is cancer hereditary? The most common and deadliest diseases facing people today tend to run in families like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.
This makes your family's past one of the leading causes of cancer. Talking about your family's history may actually help you save the life of a family member from.
If someone in your immediate family - either your parent, brother, sister or child - has had cancer, you probably are at higher risk for the disease.
A positive history of cancer in your family is recognized as one of the most important risk factors in predicting your personal risk. The connection of first-degree family history to cancer risk has been consistently and positively determined for numerous types which are also known as hereditary cancers.
In fact, according to Heather Spencer Feigelson, PhD, MPH, an American Cancer Society epidemiologist specializing in genetics, a family history of cancer is considered to be an important risk factor for the following types:
Is cancer hereditary? When it occurs in one of your first-degree relatives, it increases your personal risk by 2 to 4 times higher compared to persons who have no family history of cancer. The rate of increase of risk depends upon the type of the disease.
Furthermore, the number of affected relatives and having relatives with an early age of cancer onset further increase this risk. For example, if two or more first-degree relatives develop malignant tumors before they reach the age of 40 then your risk of getting them goes higher.
The magnitude of the risk is less when only second- or third-degree relatives are affected or when the cancer develops in a relative at the age of 65 and above. When cancer occurs at this age, then human aging is probably the risk factor that triggers it to develop.
It's true you can never change your family history. But being aware of it may help. If you and your doctor know that it tends to run in your family, you can watch more closely for the early symptoms of cancer and signs of cancer.
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