Does having an aunt with uterine cancer make me more likely to have ovarian cancer?
Hereditary cancer is rare – fewer than 10% of cancer cases are hereditary. If the two cancers you mention are the only ones in your family, it’s very unlikely there is any hereditary cancer in your family. An indication that cancer may be hereditary is when several members of the same side of a family have had the same type of cancer, especially if some of them were diagnosed at a young age. Where there are isolated cases of cancer or several different cancers in a family, it isn’t hereditary. And you are considered at possible hereditary risk of a cancer if, as above, there is a strong family history and if close family members have had the cancer. Neither a is the case for you. The faulty genes that are known to be responsible for hereditary breast cancer are also linked to hereditary ovarian cancer; but if your cousin’s is an isolated case of breast cancer within the family, this is unlikely to be a concern. So no, it’s unlikely your family history makes it more likely that you have
