How relevant is family history towards breast cancer?
Only 5 – 10% of breast cancer cases are due to hereditary factors; the rest are random. Having a family mebmer who has or has had breast cancer does not necesarily increase your risk Women who carry one of the faulty BRCA genes responsible for hereditary breast cancer have an 80% chance of getting breast cancer at some point in their lives – but this still means that one in five of women with the gene will not get breast cancer. You have a 50% chance of inheriting one of the BCRA genes if one of your parents carries it. So hereditary breast cancer is fairly rare. My oncologist was able to assure me that mine was not hereditary and that the rest of my largely female family were not at any increased risk.
