Cancer Prevention Through Genetic Counselling

Abstract

Several types of familial cancer can be prevented from progressing to advanced stages by regular surveillance of the person at risk [1] and hence by the early treatment of the developing neoplasia. Genetic counselling of such patients and their relatives is, therefore, an important task which often remains unrecognised. This is especially true for the common familial forms of cancer such as breast and colorectal cancer which aggregate in the families of about 5% of all patients according to the rules of autosomal-dominant inheritance [2]. The prevention of cancer is promising, especially for the familial forms because persons at risk are motivated to take preventive measures, in particular when they can be identified with certainty and counselled with concrete information [3].