Hi:

Is head and neck cancer hereditary? My sister was told by her doctor no. But, I am not sure. I had an aunt with oral cancer and my dad has cancer on the base of his tongue . Neither smoked or drank. Is there testing that can be done if you think you are genetically predisposed?

don't know about genetic testing, but I do know that no one for two generations back on either side of my family tree had head and neck cancer despite their strong familial history of major tobacco and alcohol use. Guess I was just lucky

Moffitt has always maintained to me that OC is not hereditary but who knows with cancer. Since mine was caused by HPV and while no one is sure why HPV affects some and not all, I am told that possibly a weakened immune system played a role and perhaps that is hereditary so when I was infected by the HPV virus, I became predisposed to cancer?

I have enough trouble understanding Tax law much less something I was never trained in.

hi boston,
In 2006 my husband's radiologist had a stern talk with our 2 adult sons. He told them they had a 50% increased chance of getting cancer due to genetics. There is a strong history of male lung cancer deaths in our family. They both smoked, and if they did not quit that very day, they would double those odds over the general population.

Tomorrow, the now 25 year old son is going to an oral surgeon for a painful bump on the back of the his tongue that will not go away. It's been there 4 weeks now. His primary care physican did the referral. The radiologist's words are haunting him.

I know this does not answer your question, I can only share with you our family experience.

I hope your son gets a good report.

Have either of them stopped smoking?

Jerry

Hi Jerry,
I started a new thread in Symptoms and Diagnosis.
As far as the smoking, his version of reality is:
Yes, he quit.
"Except for when he goes out at night with friends." "But not all the time." Oh, and "except for when he switched to cigars temporarily."

I think he has quit now though.

Thank you

The older son (32) quit several times, failed at long term. He had doctor supervision and took Chantix. Then most recently totally quit.
However, I saw the chewing stuff that comes in a can at his house recently. He admits to using it "once in a while"

I will get off boston's thread now.

There have not been any proven studies linking oral cancer to heredity. There have been a couple members here who have other family members with oral cancer.

update...Looks like this is something I wasnt aware of. Brian and Suzanne have the correct info. I apologize for any misinformation.

There is a gene, brca2. This gene is hereditary and can cause head and neck cancer and breast cancer in women and pancreatic and prostate in men. My cousin has had breast and ovaian cancer, I obviously have oral and my uncle passed away from pancreatic. This same cousin was tested and has this gene and I'm going to get tested too. As it turns out, my cousin has always been interested in the geneology so this is right up her alley. She is doing more research with her doctor. I'll let you know what I learn!!

This gene has been known for quite some time. Of the genes that we know something about, they are increasingly being grouped. brca2 falls into the group that are loosely described as tumor suppressor genes. It expresses a protein that is associated with repair of damaged DNA. Obviously cancer is the result of damaged DNA which has developed various possible aberrations that allow things like the cell to reproduce rapidly, avoid detection by the immune system, and becoming immortal. It is highly likely that brca2 is associated with many cancers, because when it is damaged or missing, this repair protein it expresses is missing from the equation that keeps irregular DNA from persisting.