Does colon cancer run in families?
A. There are two inherited conditions which carry a substantially higher risk of colon cancer. In Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, affected family members develop thousands of small benign growths, called polyps, in the large intestine. Before the age of 40, one or more of these polyps will develop into a bowel cancer. In Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer (also called Lynch Syndrome), patients develop cancer of the bowels and other organs, usually at an early stage. However, these conditions are very rare and only cause one in twenty cases of bowel cancer. Overall, the risk of bowel cancer doubles if you have a close relative (parent, bother or sister) with this cancer.
