• Question: can cancer get to you by your parents

    Asked by cupcake94 to Amar, Ana, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 7 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by cherry1, lolypop, coupy123, icecream19, sophieb.
    • Photo: Amar Joshi

      Amar Joshi answered on 7 Mar 2014:

      You cannot catch cancer from you’re parents like you can catch a cold of flu.

      However, the genes you inherit from your parent can make you more likely to get cancer. Last year the Hollywood actress Angelia Jolie took preventative measures when she found out she was likely to get breast cancer.

    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 7 Mar 2014:

      The disease cancer can’t be passed on to you from your parents.

      What can be passed on to you by your parents are some genetic mutations which put you at a much higher risk of cancer.

      For example, some women may inherit a genetic mutation from her mother which puts her at a much higher risk of developing breast cancer.

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 7 Mar 2014:

      The genes some people inherit from their parents put them at greater risk of developing some cancers. Probably the most well publicised is the risk of developing inherited breast cancer. But there are many other types of cancer that people can have a genetic predisposition to, for example Lynch syndrome can increase the risk of developing bowel or endometrial cancer.

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