Hereditary Cancer

Hereditary colorectal cancer.

The question, "Is cancer hereditary?" has been answered beyond any doubt through the discovery of germ-line cancer-causing mutations in a subset of colorectal cancers (CRCs). Clearly, this authentication of the role of genetics was not solely dependent on molecular genetic studies, since hereditary cancer syndromes such as familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) had been known for at least 100 yea...

Hereditary nonmelanoma skin cancer.

Cutaneous basal and squamous cell carcinomas are among the most frequent malignancies in the white population, with the annual incidence estimates ranging from 1 million to 3.5 million cases in the United States. These tumors can occur either sporadically or in the context of hereditary genodermatoses with cancer predisposition, such as basal cell nevus syndrome, xeroderma pigmentosum, epidermo...

Hereditary Prostate Cancer

One of the triumphs of molecular genetics during the past two decades has been the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms responsible for the inherited predisposition for a number of common human cancers. Genes such as BRCA1, BRCA2, VHL, APC and hMSH2—in which changes as small as single nucleotide substitutions result in greatly increased organ-specific cancer risk—have been identified through...

Hereditary Breast-Ovarian Cancer

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer.

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), or Lynch syndrome, is the most common form of hereditary colorectal cancer (CRC). A well-orchestrated cancer family history is essential for its diagnosis since, unlike its familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) hereditary cancer counterpart, HNPCC lacks distinguishing clinical stigmata of its cancer genetic risk. Discoveries in the 1990s of germ...