Breast Cancer

[lubecki161]

No one is answering me in the Health section so im comming here!!

If someone in your family gets breast cancer how likely is it someone else will get it?
xx

[dimwithwit]

If it is your mother or grandmother then there is a likelyhood that it is genetic, sometimes it skips a generation. it also depends on what type of breast cancer it is and how old they were when they got it. but the best thing to do is to check yourself at the same time every month and if any other further concerns, discuss it with your family doctor. Hope this helps. I hope whoever has it in your family make a recovery.

[Lakitu]

The link below states this

No. The chances of inheriting breast cancer aren't high, even if someone in your family has had the disease. Many people have parents, siblings or children who have had breast cancer without carrying a mutated form of BRCA1 or BRCA2. Although anyone with first-degree relatives who have had breast cancer is at increased risk, most people don't get the inherited kind of breast cancer.

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/c ommon/cancer/risk/332.html

My personal view is that if I had a close relative who has/had BC then I would get screened every few years just to be safe. I check by hand fairly regularly anyway.

[yogasun]

It very much depends on the age the member got it. If before 45/50 it could be the inherited type (there is a gene that carries it) but it's very complicated. That's why you read about women having mastectomies as a preventative measure as several women in their family have had breast cancer. There will be information galore on the internet.
Good luck. Others may answer more comprehensively.

[lubecki161]

Great grandmother, Shes in her mid 80s looks like shes had it for a while but shes only just found out.
Its quite late to get it i though i thought?

[Lakitu]

Is there a cut off age??

[Octavius]

The cause of breast cancer is probably a combination of factors. These include lifestyle factors, environmental factors, hormone factors, and probably other unknown factors. Your genetic make-up is another factor which is known to be involved.

About 1 in 20 women are likely to carry a faulty gene that gives them a higher risk than the general population of developing breast cancer. This may vary from a moderate increase in risk to a high risk. You inherit half of your genes from your mother and half of your genes from your father. So, if you carry a faulty gene there is a 50:50 chance that you will pass it on to each child that you have. Because of these faulty genes, breast cancer does occur more often than usual in some families. This is sometimes called 'familial breast cancer' or 'hereditary breast cancer'.

However, as breast cancer is common, many of us will have a relative who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. This is not usually due to any of the 'faulty genes' mentioned above, but is more often 'by chance'.

Most women with a family history of breast cancer do not have a greatly increased risk of developing breast cancer compared to the normal risk of the general population.

So it is generally just 'by chance'. The benefit we have these days is the ability to recognise the symptoms early on and hopefully get it treated before it spreads.

[Eve]

I'm sure there are other risks as well I remember being asked about other family history as well when I had a couple of scares.

[sandrajo]

Octavius has hit it on the head.

If you're worried at all go and talk to you GP about it don't stress yourself as thats just not good for you. xx

[lubecki161]

to be honest im not even thinking of myself in this! All my family are women and i am extremely close to my gran and my mum so really its them im thinking of!

[Octavius]

My maternal grandmother (mums mum) died when she was just over 40. My mum is still with us (70 this year) and I have 4 sisters in their 40�s. It really comes down to chance, or bad luck.

As I said above, we are a lot more advanced these days, and this awareness means that we can check ourselves over without any �taboo� and go to a GP in the hope that if we did find any �scares� that we can pre-empt or forestall the potential spread, before it becomes too late or detrimental to our wellbeing.

There is no age limit to when cancer can strike.

[Octavius]

Just for clarity, my maternal grandmother (mentioned above) died of breast cancer. That was the link I was purporting to in my post.

[4getmenot]

and men can get breast cancer too

[sandrajo]

lubecki161. I had quite a bad scare last year and no one that I know of in my family history had breast cancer....it is more common now in women than it's been in 50 years. All different things can tribute to you and anyone else getting it....if it's for you it won't go by you I always say.

[4getmenot]

I agree with that I think people have it in them already no matter what people say, eat too many tomatos you get it, eat too few you get it blah blah blah. I;ve just found out my bloke might have it for a second time, how much bad luck can he have

[4getmenot]

not breast cancer but cancer

[4getmenot]

http://www.johnwnickfoundation.org/FAQs.html

I;m amazed at this link though:-

Male breast cancer (MBC) may occur more frequently in men with some of the following characteristics: never married, Jewish ancestry, previous benign breast disease, gynecomastia (breast enlargement in males), history of testicular or liver pathology, positive family history of breast cancer, or prior chest wall irradiation. As with women, aging is one of the largest risk factors behind male breast cancer.

Never married???? Jewish?? How??