How Men Might Contribute To Cancer In Women

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 31 Oct 2007 - 4:00 PDT

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If you're getting together with family this holiday season, you might want to spend some time talking about your medical history. Experts say by looking into your past, you might learn something about the risks you face in the future. If you do have that conversation with your family, be sure to talk to everyone. Your risks of certain cancers might come from some pretty unlikely people.

Even if it's just helping her dad do chores around the house, Janel Hall knows the importance of spending time with family. Janel has watched a grandmother and four aunts battle cancer. So when doctors told her she was almost certain to get it, she considered some dramatic steps to avoid it.

"We looked at all the options. One of the options was a complete hysterectomy and, of course, a complete mastectomy," says Janel. That may seem drastic, but genetic tests show that Janel's odds of getting ovarian cancer are nearly 50% and her odds of getting breast cancer are nearly 90%. Given her family history, that didn't surprise Janel. What did surprise her is that it was her father who passed along the risk.

"There's been a big myth that people can't inherit breast or ovarian cancer genes from their father. And unfortunately, that's just not true," says Heather Hampel, a genetics counselor at Ohio State University's James Cancer Hospital.

Hampel says ovarian and breast cancer can be treated effectively if they are caught early. The best way to do that is to know your family history. But many women assume that those types of cancers can only come from their mother and don't realize they are at risk.

"If you can find out ahead of time that you have an increased risk of cancer, then you can do something about it. And this is a gift that older generations didn't have," says Hampel.

Jane's done something about it. She decided to have a hysterectomy to avoid ovarian cancer and is screened closely every year for breast cancer. Her sister tested negative. Though the test results were mixed, it's given their father some peace of mind.

"I think it's good because now there's less decision making when something shows up. We know that something has to be done, we can't just hope it gets better," says Janel's father, Ron Everson.

What put Janel at such a high risk is that she tested positive for the BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 genes that are linked to cancer. If there is a strong history of cancer in your family, you may want to meet with a genetic counselor like Janel's family did.

http://www.osu.edu