Does cancer run in family ?

Question

My friend's father has leukemia and his sister has cancer of the kidney and had one of her kidneys removed.

Can he get cancer too ?

Answer 1

i don't think so only when you eat or drink alot of sugar

Answer 2

Cancer is multifactorial in nature. That is, it has both genetic and environmental causes. For example a smoker may never get lung cancer but a non-smoker may get lung cancer. In simplistic terms this means that the non-smoker has susceptible genes that he/she inherited.

To answer your question, cancer does run in families - most commonly bowel cancer, breast cancer. Other cancers such as liver cancer and lung cancer are mainly caused by environmental factors such as smoking and alcholism. Leukaemia is not inherited as far as I know.

Answer 3

Hereditary cancer is rare; less than 10% of all cancer cases are due to hereditary factors.

From the information you've given, your friend is at no more risk of cancer than someone with no cancer in their family, if those are the only cases of cancer in his family.

The main sign of cancer being hereditary, or running in a family, is when several members of the same family have had the SAME type of cancer. If a number of family members have had different types of cancer, as in your friend's family, it is not hereditary, and your friend is not at increased risk.

Cancer that is diagnosed after the age of 50 is less likely to be hereditary; With most cancers, the younger someone is at diagnosis the greater the chance that a hereditary factor is involved.

With one in three people getting cancer at some time in their lives it's not unusual for several members of the same family to have non-hereditary cancers. This is the case in my own family. Two of my grandparents died of cancer. Both my parents had cancer and my mother died of it; so did my aunt, my uncle and my cousin. None of their cancers were hereditary, and no members of my immediate or extended family are considered at increased risk of any of them.

Of my parents' six children, now aged between 46 and 60, only I have developed cancer and mine too was non-hereditary.

So there is a lot of cancer in my family, but no hereditary cancer. The same may be true of your friend's family

Edit** For some reason some people answering questions like this always cite breast and bowel cancer as being frequently hereditary; they are not. 5 - 10% of breast cancer cases are hereditary, and bowel cancer is rarely hereditary.

Answer 4

Anyone can get cancer.  Family history indicates an increased risk of getting cancer, but you could have no family history and still get it.  Just tell him to take all the preventative steps he can to avoid it if possible.  And if he does eventually get diagnosed with cancer, just be there for him and help him through it.

Answer 5

Yes, it is possible that he can get cancer. Cancer can be hereditary, so the best thing to do is for him to go to the doctor and get a check up and get advice on ways to try to prevent it (if possible)..