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Some types of cancer have an evident genetic context.

General remarks

Cancer is a continuum of gene modifications and of their expression. The awareness of genetic predisposition for a given patient has three main consequences:

1. Individuals with a predisposition to develop cancers constitute a high cancer risk for whom specific prevention and systematic screening are available, even if such screening involves complicated procedures.
   
2. The existence of a genetic predisposition is also a ressource for the study of the succession of genetic modifications involved during the development of cancer. Familial forms of cancer are not very frequent, but the usual forms (non familial forms) are often very similar to the familial forms when considering genetic modifications. Therefore, studying familial forms constitutes a major step towards improved understandingof usual forms of cancer.
   
3. In many cases, the predisposition for cancer is accompanied by other development defects in other tissues, thus permitting improved understanding of the physiological role of the modified genes.

Less than 1% of cancers are genuinely hereditary. For 5 to 10% of cancers, there are familial associations which lead us to suspect a major genetic role.

We will study:

        the familial colon carcinoma,

        the familial mammary and ovarian carcinoma,

        the familial endocrine cancers,

        the particular forms of some child cancers.

We will then study how to institute genetic counselling and an onco-genetic consultation.