• Question: Can you have cancer when you are born?

    Asked by to Matt, Amar on 14 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by cherry16.
    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      It’s not heard of that often but I think some types of brain cancer can start during embryonic development so when the baby is born it would have cancer by definition.

      You can be born with genetic mutations that have been passed to you by your parents that put you at higher risk of cancer. For example, Angelina Jolie was born with a mutation to a gene called ‘BRCA’, which increases her risk of getting breast cancer.

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