• Question: Which types of cancer are genetic, and why ?

    Asked by to Aled, Ellie, Fiona, Kev, Willem on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Eleanor Parker

      Eleanor Parker answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Hi lilythomasss12,
      Well I guess all cancers are technically genetic, as all are caused by having damaged faulty genes. But sometimes we can inherit some of these faulty genes from our parents.
      It’s important to remember that one faulty gene will not cause cancer by itself, it takes several genes not behaving properly for cancer to develop. Our genes can become changed (mutated) thoughout our life’s, due to things like smoking or obesity or a number of other things.
      Only about 5-10% of cancers develop from an inherited mutation and the most common cancers that are inherited are breast or colon cancer.

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