PharmD Info

My father and my grandfather had a history of blood cancer. Does cancer have a genetic factor which would mean I would get it too?

According to the studies, sometimes, people in the same family get cancer because they share behaviors that raise their risk. Not because they share genes. Behaviors that increase risk of cancer include smoking, unhealthy eating habits, and lack of exercise. All of these behaviors can be changed to help reduce the risk of cancer.

In other cases, cancer can be caused by an abnormal gene that is passed down through generations. In those cases, what is inherited is not the cancer itself, but the abnormal gene that may – or may not – lead to cancer. Some examples are:
1.Cancers occurring at younger ages than usual (like colon cancer in a 20-year-old)
2.More than one type of cancer in a single person (like a woman with both breast and ovarian cancer)
3.Cancers occurring in both of a pair of organs (like both eyes, both kidneys, or both breasts)
4.Cancer occurring in the sex not usually affected (like breast cancer in a man)