Breast Cancer: Just because your mother had it, it doesn’t mean you will
If your mother suffered from breast cancer, it doesn’t mean that you will. Just 14 per cent of women with breast cancer had a family history of the disease, according to new figures.
Prostate cancer seems most likely to run in families, with 20 per cent of all sufferers having had a male relative who also had the disease. But as it’s a cancer that has a very high incidence rate in elderly males, this is perhaps not so surprising.
The figures were based on an analysis of 206,000 cancer cases.
(Source: Annals of Oncology, 2007; doi: 10/1093/annonc/mdm414).
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