Do You Know Your Family’s Cancer Story?
By Yuriko Beaman, MS, LCGC Licensed Certified Genetic Counselor
Picture the last time your family gathered together. Was it a holiday dinner, a birthday celebration, or maybe just a quiet Sunday afternoon? Now think about whether cancer ever came up in conversation. For many families, it’s a topic that gets quietly tucked away, spoken about in hushed tones, or avoided altogether out of fear or respect for those who have been affected.
But here’s the thing. Our family’s cancer history is one of the most powerful pieces of health information we have. And knowing it could change everything.
Cancer Can Run in Families
Most of the time, cancer is sporadic. It can be influenced by environmental exposures, lifestyle factors, and simply the wear and tear of aging cells. But for about 5-10% of people, cancer risk is hereditary, meaning it is caused by a gene variant or modification that can be passed from parent to child, generation to generation.
These inherited gene modifications don’t guarantee a cancer diagnosis. But they can significantly increase the likelihood of developing certain cancers over a lifetime. And unlike many health risks, a hereditary cancer syndrome can affect not just us, but our children, siblings, parents, and cousins. An entire branch of our family tree.
The good news? When hereditary cancer risk is identified early, it opens the door to personalized screening, prevention strategies, and treatment options that can genuinely save lives.
What Is a Hereditary Cancer Syndrome?
We may have heard of BRCA1 and BRCA2, the genes most commonly associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. But hereditary cancer syndromes extend far beyond breast cancer. Lynch Syndrome, for example, is one of the most common hereditary cancer syndromes and is associated with increased risk for colon, uterine, ovarian, and several other cancers. CDH1 gene changes are linked to a rare but aggressive form of stomach cancer. And there are many others.
What these syndromes have in common is that they leave clues in our family history.
How to Recognize a Pattern
Our knowledge of the cancer pattern in our family can provide our doctor or genetic counselor with valuable information about our cancer risk. When we look at our family history, certain patterns are worth paying attention to. When multiple relatives on the same side of the family share the same or related cancers, that is a pattern worth noting. The same is true when cancer appears at a younger age than expected, such as breast, colon, or uterine cancer diagnosed at 50 or younger. Cancers that are less common in the general population, like ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, or male breast cancer, are also worth bringing to the attention of a healthcare provider. So is more than one cancer diagnosis in the same person, or a close relative with metastatic or very high-risk prostate cancer.
When any of these patterns sound familiar, it may be worth having a conversation with our doctor or with a genetic counselor. As a genetic counselor, I often find that patients already sensed that something was worth looking into. Trusting that instinct is a powerful first step.
Ancestry Matters Too
Our family’s heritage can also be a piece of the puzzle. Individuals of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish ancestry, for example, have a 1 in 40 chance of carrying one of three specific gene changes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, a rate significantly higher than the general population. If this describes your background, it is worth mentioning to your healthcare provider even if you don’t have a strong family history of cancer.
Start the Conversation
Gathering our family’s cancer history doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start with what you know. Ask older relatives. Parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles often hold the most complete picture. Try to identify the type of cancer and which side of the family it occurred on. Don’t worry if the information is incomplete. Even partial information is helpful.
To make it easier, I’ve created a free Cancer Family History Worksheet that walks you through the process step by step. It includes a visual family chart, a guide to patterns that may warrant further evaluation, and clear next steps. You can download it here: https://geneticcounselor.org/s/Family-History-of-Cancer-11-x-85-in-2.pdf
What a Genetic Counselor Can Do for You
If our family history makes us wonder about increased cancer risk, a genetic counselor is the right person to help make sense of it. Genetic counselors are specially trained healthcare professionals who review personal and family history, discuss the benefits and limitations of genetic testing, and discuss the results and their implications.
A referral to a genetic counselor is not a diagnosis. It is simply an opportunity to understand our risk more clearly and to take that knowledge back to our family. It is also worth knowing that genetic counselors are non-directional. Meeting with one doesn’t mean that we have to proceed with testing. At bare minimum, we will gain a better understanding of genetics and what it means for our family.
It’s also important to note that clinical genetic testing, ordered through a doctor’s office, conveys privacy protections that direct-to-consumer testing doesn’t provide. Clinical genetic test results are not shared with large databases so our information remains private and secure.
There is also a federal law that protects our genetic information called GINA, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. GINA prohibits health insurers and employers from discriminating against us based on our genetic information. It is important to note, however, that GINA does have some exclusions, for example it does not apply to life insurance. To learn more about GINA and what it means for you, visit Is Your Genetic Information Protected? or watch this short video.
Beyond the Shadow of Cancer History
Cancer in the family can feel like a shadow that follows us. But knowledge has a way of turning shadows into something we can actually work with. Gathering our family’s cancer history is an act of care, for ourselves and for the people we love.
We don’t have to have all the answers. We just have to start asking the questions.
📥 Download the free Cancer Family History Worksheet at https://geneticcounselor.org/s/Family-History-of-Cancer-11-x-85-in-2.pdf
About the Author
Yuriko Beaman, MS, LCGC is a Licensed Certified Genetic Counselor specializing in hereditary cancer risk assessment. She sees patients at St. Joseph Medical Center Cancer Center in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and shares educational resources for patients and clinicians at GeneticCounselor.org.
