Introduction
Breast cancer is a disease based on mutations of genes. However, these are only hereditary if they occur in all cells, i.e. healthy and cancer cells. In women, only about 5-10% of breast cancer is inherited.
Here spontaneous mutations play a much greater role. In men, on the other hand, the inherited form is more frequent, although men also get breast cancer less frequently. Consequently, breast cancer can be inherited, but the probability of a new mutation is much higher.
How likely am I to get breast cancer if my mother had breast cancer?
This is not easy to say. Here it depends on many different factors. If one of these risk factors is present, a gene analysis can be carried out, which will reveal whether one of the possible breast cancer genes is detectable in the family and whether this gene is present in the patient.
Here one should know that only in 25% of the families where one of these criteria is met, a gene is actually detectable as the cause. In most cases, however, these are only spontaneous mutations that are not inherited. If a gene is present, the risk of developing breast cancer is still not 100%, but 50-70% (up to the age of 80), depending on the mutated gene.
- On the one hand you should look at the whole family. If there are more than three women with breast cancer in the close relatives (parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents), the risk is increased that it is an inheritable form of breast cancer.
- Even if there is a woman in the family with breast cancer at a very young age, this can be an indication.
- Another sign is the frequent occurrence of breast and ovarian cancer in the family.
- In addition, it is an indication of a hereditary event if a man as well as a woman are ill with breast cancer.
