Is cancer hereditary?

Question

Is cancer hereditary?

Answer 1

Yes/no. Most are blamed on hereditary, but there are some that are not.  

Answer 2

Yes ... however, there are people who are diagnosed with a cancer that have no family history of it.

If cancers run in your family, you should let your doctor know so you can have annual screenings.

As well, some cancer agencies do gene testing.  

Answer 3

From experience and researches, cancer is very hereditary. Though not all the offspring will get it, but it very advisable to start looking out for cancer signs early enough in order to either eliminate it or reduce the cells to the barest minimum. Your doctor will be immense help here.

Answer 4

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

There is not a general inherited tendency to get cancer; for example if you have two relatives who have had breast cancer, hereditary or not, you are not at increased risk of other cancers.

An indication that a cancer may be hereditary within a family is if several members of the family have had the same type of cancer. If several members have had cancer, but they are different types - eg, one had stomach cancer, one had lung cancer, one had skin cancer - there is no hereditary factor.

The faulty genes that are responsible for hereditary cancer are rare - for example two faulty genes have been identified in hereditary breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2; but only 5 - 10% of breast cancer is hereditary.

And the younger someone is at diagnosis, the higher the chance that a genetic factor is involved; cancers which develop after the age of 50 are much less likely to be hereditary.

Some families have several cases of cancer , but no hereditary cancers This is the case with 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 member of my immediate or extended family are considered to be at increased risk of any of them.

Of my parents' 6 children - now aged between 46 and 60 - only I have developed cancer, and mine was random, non-hereditary and unconnected to theirs.

Edit** just a little information about some of the cancers that have been mentioned in answers here as being hereditary.

5 - 10% of breast cancers are hereditary

Fewer than 5% of colon cancers are hereditary.

Cancer of the womb is rarely hereditary

About 10% of pancreatic cancers are hereditary.

Testicular cancer is rarely hereditary, but there is research going on to find out more about how genes may affect the risk

Answer 5

It really depends on the type of cancer you are talking about. Some families certainly do seem to have a hereditary disposition to breast or colin cancer. My mother developed stomach cancer and passed away a few years ago. When I spoke to my gastroenterologist about this he stated that this kind of cancer does not appear to be hereditary. If your direct family (mother, father sister and/or brother) has cancer then you have a greater then average chance of developing cancer too.

Answer 6

Some, but not all, types of cancer can be hereditary.

Specifically, there is evidence that breast, ovarian, womb, and bowel cancers can be hereditary. Also, prostate, testicular and pancreatic cancers can too.

If only one relative has had a particular cancer, your risk is not much more than anyone else, but if more than one relative has that type of cancer, your risk increases.