Breast cancer most common familial cancer: Experts

Ahead of the World Cancer Day on February 4, experts have said that breast cancer is the most common familial cancer. According to Dr Kirti Chadha, chief scientific officer and senior oncopathologist, Metropolis Healthcare Limited, familial cancer is characterised by gene mutations in two or more first-degree relatives diagnosed with the same type of cancer.

”This condition is influenced by hereditary predisposition, variable gene penetrance, and environmental factors,” she said. Metropolis Healthcare did an analysis on hereditary cancer syndromes by analysing data on Hereditary Cancer Panel Testing, it said in a statement. Breast cancer showed the highest positivity rate of 34 per cent followed by gastrointestinal cancer (30 per cent), ovarian cancer (eight per cent) and prostate cancer (four per cent), according to the study. Metropolis Healthcare studied the results of 102 patients who underwent testing for the Hereditary Cancer Panel (HCP).

According to Dr Sunny Jain, cancer care/oncology, senior consultant and HoD – oncology, Marengo Asia Hospitals, Faridabad, about five to 10 per cent of cancers are inherited cancers in which an individual inherits a copy of a defective gene from one parent, and a working copy of the same gene from the other parent. ”The most common type of familial inherited cancer is breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC). A person with an inherited cancer susceptibility gene should take extra steps to ensure he/she finds out ways to lower risk and find cancer early,” he added. He advised eating a healthy diet, quitting smoking and alcohol, having regular health checkups and enrolling in various screening programmes.