Breast Cancer - Should You Be Concerned If Your Mother Had Breast Cancer?

You, like most women, become anxious when one of the immediate members of your family is diagnosed with breast cancer. And you have a big question in mind - is breast cancer hereditary? This is tantamount to probing if you should be worried about being afflicted with breast cancer, just because your mother happens to be diagnosed with this ailment.

It may be true that when your mother or sister was diagnosed with the Big C in the breast, your risk is greater than any other woman who had no family history of the disease. When your mother had cancer of the breast, your risk can be twice or thrice greater than the general populace. But then this is just an increase in risk, not necessarily meaning that you too will be having the illness.

The cause of cancer of the breast is completely unknown but there had been enough convictions that this mostly occurs by chance. The hereditary factor could be due to genetic make-up.

There are three faulty genes in your system that had been usually linked to breast cancer. If you have one or more of these, you develop a risk of developing this Big C and in some instances ovarian cancer. If you carry one of these, it is likely that you will pass this on to your child. And if your mother had this kind of cancer caused by one of these faulty genes, you have a 50-50 chance of inheriting it. These faulty genes are the culprits why breast cancer occurs in some families. This is referred to as hereditary or familial breast cancer. Not all women who had inherited this faulty gene will be diagnosed with the ailment; this only increases the risk.

Breast cancer is very common to women and it is big possibility that you have a relative with this ailment. The cause may not be due to the faulty genes but the mitigating factor is chance. Most women with history of cancer in the family have the same risk as other women. However, there are some women who have greater hazards.

It is important that you are aware of the different factors that may increase your risk. These mostly pertain to blood relationship. The probability becomes high when many blood relatives are diagnosed with the disease. The younger, below 40 years old, your relative were when diagnosed with the Big C, the higher your chance is. Your relative has cancer in both of the breasts or when breast and ovarian cancer run in the family. A male relative diagnosed with such cancer also increases the possibility.

Because of these risks, you may be very concerned about your possibility of having this illness. Forget about your anxiety of being diagnosed with the affliction. To have peace of mind, see your doctor and undergo tests and assessments. The survival rate is very high when detected at an early stage and of course, when treated immediately.

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