Family history of cancer and pre-Disposition of a person to cancer
Family Cancer Syndromes
DNA, genes, and chromosomes
Family cancer syndromes - when should I worry?
Family History and Prevalence of Certain Types of Cancer
Risk Assessment in Identifying a Family History of Cancer
Family Cancer Syndromes
Cancer has become a common disease in the world today and the prevalence of the disease is such that in many families one would find at least one person who has been affected by the disease. There have been instances where it has been noted that some forms of cancer tend to run in some families.
Often researchers point to certain common risk factors like smoking among the family that can lead to many types of cancer. Other factors like obesity that tend to run in families also have an influence in the prevalence of cancer in the family (www.cancer.org).
However in some cases it has been found that a set of abnormal gene that is passed along from generation to generation in a family is the cause of cancer. Even as this phenomenon is often termed as inherited cancer, it is the defective or abnormal gene that is inherited and which leads to the development of cancer in individuals of a particular family that has carries the abnormal gene. Research has shown that cancers that results directly from gene defects -- called mutations, accounts for about 5% to 10% of all cancers (www.cancer.org).
DNA, genes, and chromosomes
Abnormal gene -- pieces of DNA, are the cause of cancer. The genes carry information for cells to make the proteins that the body needs, to destroy damaged cells and maintain balance of cells in the body. All aspects of human body such as hair color, eye color, and height are controlled by gene. The chance of development of cancer is also partly controlled and affected by gene.
Mutation is the term given to the abnormal change in a gene. The 2 types of mutations of change in gene character are inherited and acquired.
There are 2 copies of most genes -- one from each parent and cells start out with one mutation when there is a genetic abnormality. Cancer susceptibility gene is created when the other copy of the gene stops working due to an acquired mutation which can lead to development of cancerous cells and foster development of tumors.
Family cancer syndromes - when should I worry?
While certain causes of cancer running in the family could be due to bad habits like smoking, there are some are caused by inherited gene mutation that results in a family cancer syndrome.
There are certain things that result from family cancer syndrome like in cases of an uncommon or rare type of cancer such as kidney cancer, cancers that develop at a young age, when there is multiple cancer types in a single individual such as breast and ovarian cancer in a woman, when both pair of organs develops cancer as in both kidneys or breasts, when more than one childhood cancer is found in siblings and in cases of cancer developing in the sex not usually affected such a breast cancer developing in a man.
Family History and Prevalence of Certain Types of Cancer
Breast Cancer
After non-melanoma skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common and frequently detected cancer in women and causes more deaths than all other forms of cancer other than lung cancer. Studies have found that among adult populations, 5% to 10% of women belong to a family where either mother or sister have or had breast cancer. The prevalence is doubled for either a first-degree relative (FDR) or a second-degree relative with breast cancer (3). In case-control and cohort studies (Dungan).
By the use of volunteer and population-based samples, several studies have assessed the risk of development of breast cancer. Several studies pooled together found out that the relative risk of breast cancer is 2.1 with a 95% confidence interval. The number of relatives affected by breast cancer, the age of an individual at diagnosis, the prevalence of bilateral or multiple ipsilateral breast cancers in a family member and occurrence of breast cancer in male relatives are the factors that increase the risks of developing the disease (Colditz).
Women whose mother or sister has breast cancer runs a significantly greater risk of developing the disease was found out after a study based on the Swedish Family Cancer Database. The study found out that the hazard ratio for women who have just one instance of the disease in the cancer was 1.8 compared to a value of 2.7 for women belonging to a family with a history of multiple breast cancers (Kerber and O'Brien).
Ovarian Cancer
While reproductive complications, demography and lifestyle...
This type of prevention involves the complete removal of both breasts and all breast tissue. By having this operation individuals are able to completely eliminate the risk of having breast cancer. In most cases this procedure is only done on women who have many members of their family (mothers, grandmothers, aunts) that have been diagnosed or died from breast cancer. In such instances there is usually a genetic reason
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All these possible factors involved in the development of cancer not only work together but can do so in a multistage process; meaning that different factors can influence carcinogenesis at different times but still in conjunction with each other. The development of colorectal cancer is an example of such a process that combines both oncogenes and tumor suppression genes acting at different times but influencing each other and contributing to
" He believed that discovery of such cancer was vital to early identification of cancer risk in patients with family history of cancer. The two more prominent types were breast and colon cancer. Even though medical community considers a patients with family history of breast or colon cancer high risk, there is a common tendency to not focus too much on hereditary aspect. While this may have opened new avenues
Furthermore, alcoholism causes brain damage and "thiamine deficiency is a common occurrence in people with alcoholism" (NIAA 2004). The fact that brain damage is caused by excessive alcohol abuse is a serious concern and one which cannot be overlooked. But alcoholics are not alike and alcoholism has different origins for different people. Therefore the effects vary considerably. But these, among many other effects of alcohol abuse can be expected or at least there is a possibility
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