Mesothelioma
What is the likelyhood of getting cancer if your parents and one grandparent has been diagnosed with cancer?
My mother and grandmother were diagnosed with breast cancer and my father has been diagnosed with mesothelioma.
Public Comments
- Pretty high, sorry to say. Just try to stay healthy and thats about all you can do. Also, talk to your doctor, he/she will be able to help you.
- First and foremost I am no doctor. I did go for a 6 hour gene therapy with my friend who does have breast cancer (survivor) and had a lot of cancer in her family and her daughter was concerned. The end result was that if your family members contract cancer before the age of 40-50 it may be genetic, but it is is after that age it is random. The Doctor actually said the random rate of getting cancer is the same as for those that is genetic (1 out of 3). The good news is that you will be very cautious with your check ups and a healthy lifestyle will help too. As it turned out with all the cancer in her family there was no genetic link after all.
- One thing that is very important is what age your mother and grandmother had breast cancer. You do have an increased risk of breast cancer having 2 female relatives with breast cancer, but your risk is even higher if your mother or grandmother were pre-menopausal when they were diagnosed. If they were young, you may want to go to genetic counseling to find out if there is a specific gene you carry that would cause you to get cancer. Even if you don't test positive for a gene, you will want to get screening mammograms starting at a younger age than the general population. The time you start should be discussed with your doctor, but this is often around age 30, or even before. As for mesothelioma, this is less of a concern. This is not a very common cancer, and the current thinking is that these are usually caused by an environmental exposure. This doesn't seem to run in families. I'm sorry you've had to deal with so much illness in your family. I wish you the best!
- If you live in the same area and have the same diet I'd say pretty high. Clean air, exercise and a well balanced diet will help you avoid cancer.
- ur chance is quite high, u must always check with ur DR n ur blood test twice yearly.do more exercise n eat good nutrition food r very important.take care.
- Sorry to hear about all the cancer diagnoses. Was your father exposed to asbestos? I believe that's the only thing that causes mesothelioma, and there are major lawsuits about this. If you were not exposed to the asbestos, then you should not be at a higher risk of mesothelioma for any reason. Your risk with your mother and grandmother both having had breast cancer depends upon a lot of things. The good news is that genetic testing is now available to help determine how high your risk is. You definitely are at a higher risk of breast cancer and possibly ovarian cancer, and you should be watched closer. Depending upon what city you live in, there may be a cancer and genetics clinic that you could go to and they would be able to help you a lot. If you post the city you live in I will try and come back and give you those clinics. There also may be clnical trials run by the NIH that you could get into for enhanced breast cancer screening. Catching breast cancer earlier is often the key to surviving it. So although it's frightening to think you might get it in the future, the more vigilant you are, the better. There are so many great web sites and organizations now to help you out. One I highly recommend is called FORCE, which is Facing our Risk of Cancer Empowered, founded by a friend of mine. It is great that you are so concerned abou this because it will give you a better chance of knowing your risk and taking appropriate actions. The good news is now there is testing available. The best person to have it would probably be your grandmother, if she is still alive, if she is on Medicare, because Medicare covers breast cancer genetic testing, called BRCA testing. Your mom could also be tested and some insurance covers it if she is not on Medicare. Is it your mother's mother that had the cancer? Or your father's mother? If either your mother or grandmother gets a positive result on the BRCA test, then you could be tested to see if you have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. These genes confer, unfortunatley, a much higher risk of developing cancer over your lifetime. But if you know that risk you can be proactive! If you do not have the BRCA genes you are still at higher risk, but it's not as high as if you have the genes. It is a bit complicated, and so a genetic counselor could help you out with this area. There is lots of info on the web sites below and many others if you search for genetic risk for breast cancer on Google. Good luck to you. There are also lots of studies now about reducing your risk of breast cancer, and they show big reductions from things as simple as getting enough exercise (even just walking) and keeping your weight down to eating a healthy diet including specific things like broccoli (at least 1/2 cup a day) which has great cancer-fighting properties specifically in breast cancer. This has been proven in studies.
- I would ask what kind of cancer your mom and grandmom had. if their cancer was the type that is heredity, then the age they were. There is a test that you can take that would tell you if you have the receptors for cancer. It's HER2, Just make sure you are ready for the answers from the test if you get it done. It doesn't tell you if you will get cancer but it's a good indicator. I know women that have had the test done and they go in and have booth breast removed. I'm not sure I could do that. I've had breast cancer and I don't know if I could willing have them removed. Talk it over with your doctor, depending on your age they will start do mamo's at age 35. Good Luck
