Is colon cancer heriditary?
Sorry you lost your mother to cancer. Like other cancers, colon cancer is rarely hereditary; fewer than 5% of cases of colon cancer are due to a high-risk inherited gene defect. Where it is hereditary there is usually a strong family history of colon cancer – several relatives diagnosed with it, especially if they are from different generations of the family, or one or more relatives diagnosed at a young age. There are two rare inherited conditions that increase colon cancer risk too. This link from Cancer Research UK explains http://www.cancerhelp.org.
