Did You Get Cancer From Your Parents?

19/04/10

Filed under: PreventionSome cancers like breast, colon, prostate and lung cancer run in families. Mutated cancer-causing genes can be passed from parents to children. But family history accounts for only about 5 to 10 percent of most fatal cancers. Even those who have inherited a high-risk genetic mutation like the BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 genes for breast cancer, can protect themselves.
Scientists have identified three types of genes that affect your cancer risk. They are oncogenes, which encourage cells to proliferate in excess; tumor suppressor genes, which normally stop cells from multiplying out of control, but which can become damaged and ineffective; and mismatch-repair genes, which normally help to repair mistakes in DNA, but which can be damaged, allowing mistakes to accumulate.
Other …

Original post by The Cancer Blog and software by Elliott Back

 

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