Genetic Counseling

hwt
hwt Member Posts: 2,328 Member
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

Met with a genetic counselor today at Mayo. He was so informative and interesting. Thought you all might be interested to know that he said cancer of the mandible and oral cancers are not hereditary. 70+% of cancers are by chance. 15% or so are from shared family genes/similar enviroments (ex 2nd hand smoke). 5-10% hereditary/muted gene.

He did a family tree of all my siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts. uncles and cousins that have had cancer. He was reassuring that with all cancers coming after the age of 50 that they fall in the sporadic category and nothing DNA testing would be needed for. 

I feel a sense of relief for my siblings and their families.  

My SBRT tx going like clockwork...2 sessions down 3 to go..happy to say, no ill effects.

Comments

  • jim and i
    jim and i Member Posts: 1,788 Member
    #2
    That is pretty interesting. I

    That is pretty interesting. I wondered because I have cancer running in my family and Jim doesn't. Strange he got the cancer. I still think it was job related. But very hard to nail down.

  • katenorwood
    katenorwood Member Posts: 1,912
    #3
    Hello HWT !

    I think that genetic testing in families with a history of cancer is an excellant idea.  Depending on the tests it can be very expensive though.  I pray that with more research being done in this field the price will go down eventually. 

    I'm so relieved to hear you're making it through tx's without major side effects !  Hugs sent !  Katie

  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #4
    jim and i said:

    That is pretty interesting. I

    That is pretty interesting. I wondered because I have cancer running in my family and Jim doesn't. Strange he got the cancer. I still think it was job related. But very hard to nail down.

    Hi Debbie

    I agree with you on some cancers being job related but you will never be able to fight that.

    Tim Hondo

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