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Annals of Oncology Advance Access published online on September 5, 2007
Annals of Oncology, doi:10.1093/annonc/mdm414
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© 2007 European Society for Medical Oncology

How common is familial cancer?

K Hemminki1,2,*, J Sundquist2 and JL Bermejo1

1 Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
2 Center for Family and Community Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden

* Correspondence to: Dr K. Hemminki, Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 580, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. Tel: +49-62-21421800; Fax: +49-62-21421810; E-mail: k.hemminki{at}dkfz.de

Background: Family history of a disease may point to its heritable or environmental etiology. It can be described by the proportion of the familial disease, i.e. same disease in two or more family members. A family history always needs to be specified as to the number of generations covered and their ages.

Patients and methods: Proportions of site-specific familial cancers (familial proportions) were calculated using the Swedish Family-Cancer Database, the largest dataset of its kind in the world, with cancers from the Swedish Cancer Registry. Familial proportions refer to the offspring population up to age 72 years when their parents or siblings were diagnosed with a concordant (same) cancer.

Results: A total of 34 cancer sites and 205 638 cases were covered. Prostate cancer showed the highest familial proportion of 20.15%, followed by breast (13.58%) and colorectal (12.80%) cancers. Salivary gland cancers showed the lowest familial proportion of 0.15%, but bone, laryngeal, anal, connective tissue and other genital cancers also remained <1%. The familial proportion depended on the prevalence of the particular cancer and on its familial risk.

Conclusions: The derived familial proportions can justifiably be used in statements ‘X% of the patients had a family history of the cancer’.

clinical genetic counselling, familial risk, referral of familial cancer, family history, cancer prevalence, familial proportion

Received for publication July 12, 2007. Accepted for publication July 16, 2007.


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