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Family history influenced concordant, discordant cancer risks
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Individuals with a family history of cancer were at higher risk for the same type of malignancy as well as cancers at other sites, according to study results.
Researchers culled data from Italian and Swiss case-control studies conducted between 1991 and 2009. All studies included information about family history of cancer among first-degree relatives, as well as age at diagnosis.
The analysis included more than 12,000 patients with cancer that developed in 13 sites, including the mouth and pharynx, esophagus, colorectum, breast, ovaries, prostate and kidneys. Researchers matched patients with 11,000 controls.
Results indicated an excess risk in relation to family history at a concordant site. A specific association was observed between oral and pharyngeal cancers and a family history of laryngeal cancer (OR=3.3). Similarly, esophageal cancer risk was increased by family history of oral and pharyngeal disease (OR=4.1).
Researchers also observed a connection between family history of cancer and development of malignancy at discordant sites.
Breast cancer risk increased with a family history of colorectal cancer (OR=1.5) and hemolymphopoietic cancers (OR=1.7). Ovarian cancer risk increased with a family history of breast cancer (OR=2.3), and a family history of bladder cancer increased prostate cancer risk (OR=3.4).
For most disease sites, the association with family history was increased in cases when the proband was aged younger than 60 years.
“Our results point to several potential cancer syndromes that appear among close relatives and may indicate the presence of genetic factors influencing multiple cancer sites,” Eva Negri, PhD, head of the laboratory of epidemiologic methods at Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy, said in a press release. “These findings may help researchers and clinicians to focus on the identification of additional genetic causes of selected cancers and on optimizing screening and diagnosis, particularly in people with a family history of cancer at a young age.”
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