I once saw a young mother, who was only 32 years old. Before being diagnosed, he suffered from chronic atrophic gastritis, and as a young man with a strong sense of health, the patient insisted on regular follow-up, but surprisingly, in the last examination, it was found that the chronic atrophic gastritis on the body was actually cancerous, and finally diagnosed with gastric cancer.
For stomach cancer, the patient does not seem to be surprised, as if he has been mentally prepared. It turned out that there were five cancer patients in her family, including his father, two uncles, grandfather and cousin.
This case is actually very alarming, because we usually pay more or less attention to some hereditary diseases, but few people seem to pay attention to whether cancer is inherited, in fact, the heredity of cancer is much more common than we think.
In 2003, Anita Mui died of cervical cancer, and many people regretted her untimely death, but they didn't know that Anita Mui's four brothers and sisters all suffered from cancer, and her sister also died of cervical cancer as early as 2000.
Maybe people who are a little older know Chen Zhaodi, as a famous player in the Chinese women's volleyball team during the five-consecutive championship period, Chen Zhaodi has the titles of "Desperate Saburo" and "One-armed General". Sadly, at the age of 43, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer and died at the age of 58 due to her worsening condition. Chen Zhaodi's parents, younger brother and two older sisters also died of similar conditions.
Admittedly, there is a real possibility of heredity in cancer. Since the development of medicine, tumor genetics has long become an independent discipline, and the common physical and chemical carcinogenic factors in life include alcohol, aflatoxin, formaldehyde and ultraviolet rays, etc., in addition to these, genetic factors are also one of the important causes of tumor occurrence.
A study of 9,512 twin pairs showed that genetic factors accounted for 42% of the risk of prostate cancer, 35% of colorectal cancer, 27% of breast cancer, and 22% of ovarian cancer.
Coincidentally, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a top medical journal, was conducted by researchers from Harvard University and Denmark, Finland and other countries, showing that at least 22 types of cancer are hereditary.
At the same time, a study in JAMA Oncology also showed that more than 1 8 cancer patients in the study had cancer-related heritable gene mutations in their bodies.
However, it should be reminded that the heredity of cancer is very different from ordinary genetic diseases, and it does not mean that if the parents have any disease, the children will follow the disease. On the contrary, the inheritance of cancer can cause multiple people in the family to develop different cancers, because mutations in one gene can cause many different cancers.
There are 5 types of cancer that can be easily passed on to the next generation, and if there are related patients in the family, then other family members should be taken seriously.
1.Breast cancer.
The lifetime risk of breast cancer in a normal woman is about 1%, while the risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers is as high as 23-54%.
2.Bowel cancer. One of the important factors in the development of bowel cancer is genetics, especially familial adenomatous polyps, which have a 100% heritability and a high risk of such polyps evolving into cancer. Clinically, about 15% of patients diagnosed with bowel cancer are genetically related.
3.Gastric cancer. The occurrence of gastric cancer is also closely related to genetics, and there is an obvious phenomenon of family gathering. If at least two people in one or two generations of the family have stomach cancer, and one of them is 50 years old, and all patients are diffuse, then it is likely to be hereditary stomach cancer.
4.Hepatocarcinoma. If the parents are diagnosed with liver cancer, then the children need to be the target of primary prevention, because the vertical transmission of the hepatitis B virus can easily cause the tendency of liver cancer to cluster in families. In particular, mothers who carry the hepatitis B virus have a much higher chance of developing liver cancer in their offspring than normal people.
5.Lung cancer. Although it is clinically believed that lung cancer is not directly inherited, there is still an obvious tendency of familial aggregation, because family members often live in the same environment for a long time and have similar eating habits, especially if there are smokers in the family, then it is also common for family members to be exposed to secondhand smoke, which is more likely to induce lung cancer.
In addition, clinical studies have shown that germline mutations in lung cancer genes are genetically related, such as the presence of germline mutations such as EGFR, RET and BRCA in vivo, and the genes responsible for activating ROS1 and RET cell enzymes may cause lung cancer.
So what should you do if you do have a family history of cancer?First of all, we must not panic, panic will not solve the problem, but will delay the prevention and treatment of cancer.
Our focus is to do a good job of early screening, because cancer is usually a chronic disease, generally from the onset to the advanced stage of 5-20 years, this time is enough for us to consult the doctor about the genetic characteristics of family cancer and regular screening, it is recommended that it is best to do targeted screening once a year. For example, gastric cancer can be gastroscopy, and bowel cancer can be colonoscopy.
The second is to reduce carcinogenic factors, such as HPV and hepatitis B vaccines as soon as possible, and to reduce exposure to chemical carcinogens, such as less exposure to aflatoxins in moldy foods and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in smoked foods.
Finally, it is necessary to adhere to a healthy lifestyle, which we have talked about many times, such as adhering to healthy eating habits, developing good work and rest habits, and staying away from bad habits such as smoking and alcoholism.
Although the occurrence of cancer makes people feel panicked, these are avoidable, as long as we pay a little more attention in our daily lives, the probability of occurrence will be much smaller, and all this has a premise, that is, pay attention!