Hereditary Risk for Cancer

Understanding the role of heredity in cancer is a key component of cancer prevention. Individuals at a high risk for cancer due to hereditary predisposition can now be identified through a comprehensive cancer risk assessment evaluation and/or cancer genetic testing. Identification of individual’s positive for mutations or those at high risk prior to cancer occurrence provides an opportunity to intervene with prevention and screening strategies documented to reduce cancer incidence or the mortality from cancer occurrence. Currently, there are over 200 hereditary cancer syndromes described in the literature (Schneider 2001). The scope of this chapter is not to describe all hereditary cancer syndromes, but to provide the tools to identify a hereditary cancer syndrome in a family and describe the process individuals and families undergo to determine a hereditary susceptibility towards cancer. The more common hereditary breast, ovarian and colon cancer syndromes will be described along with recommended screening and surveillance, prophylactic and chemoprevention options currently available to those at increased risk.