Is the cancer in your family inherited? Some families experience large amounts of cancer and whether it is environmental, every day living habits, or genetics are all factors that should be looked into. Genetic testing, usually performed with a blood sample, may provide information about you and an increased risk for cancer because of family genetics.

For instance, nearly everyone born with familial adenomatous polyposis (the genetic predisposition to colon cancer) develops the disease by age 40 if preventive surgery isn't done. Knowing this early can aid in prevention and early detection. Talk with your doctor about genetic counseling. A Genetic Counselor provides individuals and families with information on the nature, inheritance, and implications of genetic disorders to help them make informed medical and personal decisions. Genetic counselors often work in clinics with oncologists or gastroenterologists and focus on cancer risk.

Jack Osbourne, son of rock legend Ozzy and colon cancer survivor Sharon Osbourne, recently stated that he blames his alcohol and drug addiction on his father. During his mother Sharon's diagnosis and treatment for colon cancer, the young Jack used alcohol and the powerfully addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin as a way to cope.

Jack is quoted as saying, "My problems peaked when mom was sick and dad was dealing with his problems the same way as I was, by drinking, so I had no one to turn to. I was just hanging out with my crowd drinking and doing drugs." Jack ended up in an addiction rehab clinic to get clean and sober.

This is no way excuses the badly-decided choices that Jack made when he turned to alcohol and drugs as a way to cope with his feelings, but there is a sharp focus and more than a bit of snarkiness to the news reports concerning Jack's blaming comment that misses a great opportunity in regard to discussing the impact a parent's cancer diagnosis has on children.

As the American Cancer Society (ACS) states, "Families face many complex issues when one of their members has cancer. There will probably be a time during a family's experience with cancer when psychosocial support services will be helpful in meeting the emotional needs of the family. There are teams of experts, each with a different focus, who offer support and are trained in how cancer affects a family." ACS offers a terrific resource for the family with the online publication of Helping Children When A Family Member Has Cancer.

The Family Doctor states, "Every person has a different way of handling news that a loved one has cancer. Many people react with shock, disbelief and even anger when they're first given the news." The Family Doctor's Cancer: Helping Your Family Help You offers advice on different questions a parent might have, such as:

• How will my family react to the news that I have cancer?
• Should I tell my children that I have cancer?
• How do I tell my children that I have cancer?
• How can I help my children cope with their feelings?
  

In 2002, when I drove home after being told I had cancer, I wondered and worried about how I was going to tell my children, how I could avoid the unavoidable shattering of innocence in their world, how to protect them from their own fear and pain? I sat outside in the car, trying to stare through the walls of our home, knowing that in the next five minutes I would be changing our lives forever with the news of my cancer diagnosis. I wanted to freeze time, to save the innocence, to keep the awful news from being true.

In the ACS online resource for families, it states, "Parents can have a powerful effect on how their children react to a crisis in the family. In the beginning this responsibility can feel like a huge weight, but it is possible for family members to learn how to deal with and even grow through the experience of having cancer in the family."

Support services can include individual counseling, family counseling, and support groups. If you do not know where to start, ask your physician or call the local hospital or local ACS office. Someone will be able to help you help your children, and all family members, navigate through the crisis of cancer, so that everyone becomes a survivor of cancer in the best way possible.

1600 years ago, about 400AD, an inherited form of melanoma began from a genetic mutation that occurred in a single ancestor, according to Glasgow University researchers who traced the genetic mutation back 88 generations. Upon further investigation, a number of Scottish families, presently living in Scotland, as well as Australia, Canada and America, were found to carry the specific genetic mutation that puts them at an increased risk for a certain type of melanoma.

According to the researchers, one in ten patients diagnosed with melanoma have a strong family history of the disease and between 20 to 40 percent of those patients carry a high-risk faulty gene known as CDKN2A. The Scottish mutation in this gene is known as M53I. With these genetic discoveries, there is hope that gene therapy can be developed to repair damaged genes in cancer cells.

Parents who know they are at high-risk for passing on genetic defects that can lead to disease for their child, have been relying on genetic testing to screen embryos for inherited diseases. British scientists announced today they have developed a new test that focuses on DNA fingerprinting near the gene. The new test allows more couples to be tested since they are looking at DNA markers opposed to trying to find the gene, which can vary. According to the researchers, this is a more reliable test. The method involves taking a cell from the embryo to detect signs of the DNA marker and discarding it if it does show the likelihood of gene mutation. Only healthy embryos are used during the in-vitro fertilization, ensuring parents a healthy child.

Right now, there are strict ethical controls on this type of medical procedure, but in the years to come, when these types of procedures become more commonplace, and less expensive, will the controls begin to relax? I am not going to argue against choosing a healthy embryo over one that carries a genetic mutation that might one day lead to disease later in life, but I am still hesitant to embrace where the medical field might be going with these new tests and the potential for superficial application such as -- say -- designer babies. Paris Hilton mommies embryonic shopping for a child. I realize that is an extreme example, but it is the one I fear most. In addition, I am not an adherent of scientific worship and see medical science as a very shaky inexact science. The more I learn, the more I realize they do not know. However, here we are, and you can't un-ring a bell. Hopefully the future will prove all my misgivings wrong.

For more thoughts on designer babies, related posts: Woman pregnant with cancer-free baby and Disease-free designer babies embryo selection.

What would you do if you tested positive for a gene that caused the death of many of your family members? The descendants of Golda Bradfield, who died of gastric cancer and from whom the defective gene was inherited, made a radical decision based on knowing they had inherited the gene that killed their grandmother. Eleven cousins in all had their stomachs removed to avoid the certain fate of dying from gastric cancer. Some of the cousins had already watched their parents, aunts and uncles, die from gastric cancer. It is a decision they do not regret. After the stomachs were surgically removed and sent to the lab for analysis, the stomach tissue had already begun to develop cancerous growths. Without surgical removal of the stomach, this would not have been discovered in time as there are no tests to detect early stage gastric cancer.

According to experts, in the near future, doctors may do routine DNA tests to detect disease risks that can be lowered. "We do not yet have a general DNA test that fits into that category, but we're headed for it at a pretty good clip," said Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The CDH1 gene mutation, first discovered about eight years ago in a New Zealand family with a history of stomach cancer, is extremely rare. It is estimated only 100 families worldwide carry the flawed gene that leads to hereditary gastric cancer.  

Oh hello! Here's a little study that I am certain many parents are going to shake their collective heads at when it comes to the published results. First, this study is based on a questionnaire so I am not at all convinced there are hereditary genes at work -- simply because the researchers did not do an under-the-microscope study to find out if there are genes, and identify which ones, affecting our food preferences.

From my understanding, I believe genetics are a primary determining factor in what we do and do not inherit. I could be wrong. In the meantime, I am standing by my initial concept of genes in the role of heredity. Back to food preferences.

Twenty years ago, if you were diagnosed with cancer, your physician was your primary source for medical information. With the advent of the internet, that is no longer the case. Many patients turn to the internet to research and become informed about their cancer. Personally, I think knowledge is a good thing.

Ten years ago, all medical tests were ordered by your physician. Today you can order an at-home genetic medical test over the internet. In the privacy of your home, by swabbing the inside of your cheek and sending the sample back to the company who sold you the kit, you can find out if you have inherited genes that mean you are at greater risk for developing certain cancers known to have a genetic link. Knowledge is one thing, self administered tests without the educational background or training to know how to interpret them is not what I would normally deem a good thing.

The Washington Post has published a feature Too Much Information, where Sandra G. Boodman weighs the pros and cons in this kind of at-home test. On the surface, it might seem like a good idea. On further examination, the at-home test has the potential to do more damage than any possible good. Are some things better left to the professionals? Go here to read Results of Home DNA Tests Can Shock, Misinform Some Users, before you make up your mind.

The last word has not been spoken,
The last sentence has not been written,
The final verdict is not in.
It is never too late
To change my mind,
My direction,
To say no to the past
And yes to the future,
To offer remorse,
To ask and give forgiveness,
It is never too late to start over again,
To feel again
To love again
To hope again.  -- prayer from JACOB

At the age of 47, Lori Sklar was diagnosed with breast cancer. It wasn't until after the diagnosis of cancer that Lori underwent genetic testing. Lori is an Ashkenazi Jewish woman who inherited the BRCA1 gene.

The results of an Environmental Working Group Body Burden testing program has revealed that mothers and daughters share a common body burden of at least 35 environmental cancer-causing chemicals including phthalate plasticizers, lead, methyl mercury, brominated flame retardants, and Teflon and Scotchgard perfluorochemicals PFOA and PFOS. These pollutants appear to be passed from a mother's placenta or breast milk into her daughter's body. Some of the key findings in this testing program found:

• Daughters tested had more chemicals in common with their mothers than with a group of 16 other women who were tested. This underscores the long-lasting influence of the pollution passed from mother to daughter, and their shared exposures as the child grows up. 
• The chemical burden inherited by daughters at birth will last for decades, some for a lifetime -- and the daughters will pass this same chemical burden on to their children.
• Chemicals that persist in the body were found at higher levels in mothers than daughters, showing how chemicals can build up in the body over a lifetime.
  

According to EWG, the six biomonitoring programs -- conducted between 2000 and 2006 -- revealed a total of 455 different pollutants, pesticides, and industrial chemicals in the bodies or cord blood of 72 different people -- including ten newborn babies with an average of 200 chemicals in each child.

"EPA studies show that children from birth to age two are ten times more sensitive to cancer-causing chemicals than adults," said Jane Houlihan, EWG's vice president for research. "Scientists have found that chemicals toxic effects can be passed down for four generations, by causing permanent genetic changes that can be inherited. A stew of toxic chemicals is not the legacy mothers want to hand down to their children." To read an overview of all results from EWG's Body Burden testing program, go here.

Rutgers researchers have concluded a new study that shows cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, contain a compound known as sulforaphane that might reduce the risk of developing hereditary cancers. In previous studies, sulforaphane was found to inhibit some cancers. In this study, researchers focused on genes associated with an inherited colon cancer risk. 
 
"Our research has substantiated the connection between diet and cancer prevention, and it is now clear that the expression of cancer-related genes can be influenced by chemopreventive compounds in the things we eat," said Ah-Ng Tony Kong, a professor of pharmaceutics in the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers.

Australian newspapers are reporting that a woman in Britain is pregnant with the first designer baby selected to prevent an inherited cancer. The mother-to-be, who has not been named, conceived after receiving treatment from Paul Serhal, of University College Hospital, London. In Britain, Dr. Serhal pioneered the use of this procedure to detect inherited cancers.

The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority awarded him licenses to screen for retinoblastoma and a form of colon cancer. Using a genetic-screening technology that will prevent the mother from passing on a hereditary form of eye cancer to her children, doctors removed cells and tested them for the cancer gene, and only unaffected embryos were transferred to her womb. There is heated debate over the ethics of this practice. How do you feel about designer babies?

Related post: Disease-free designer babies embryo selection.

When researchers transplanted white blood cells from a strain of  cancer-resistant mice into ordinary laboratory mice with advanced cancers, the transplant cured the cancers. According to Wake Forest University School of Medicine researchers, even highly aggressive forms of cancer with extremely large tumors were destroyed. This is breaking news. It gets better. After the white cell transplant from the super cancer-resistant mice wiped out the cancer, the white cells also protected the ordinary mice from any new deadly cancers. And it keeps getting better.

Previous studies showed that cancer-resistance in mice can be inherited. The current cancer-resistant mice all come from a single mouse discovered seven years ago. The researchers said that the cancer resistance trait has been passed to more than 2,000 descendants in 14 generations. The white cell transplant that killed the cancer came from these mice. When they can figure out how to translate all of this to the benefit of humans, the possibility for cancer cure is amazing. Truly amazing.