Genetics is the main risk factor for cancer

Analysis of data on the incidence of "familial" breast, prostate and colon cancer among people raised by foster parents showed that the main risk factor in this case is a genetic predisposition.

Swedish researchers from Lund University studied data from population registers concerning 70,965 men and women raised in foster homes, as well as their biological and adoptive parents. All the adopted study participants were born between 1932 and 1969, and between 1958 and 2010 they were diagnosed with breast, prostate or colon cancer.

The risk of developing cancer in adopted children, at least one of whose biological parents was diagnosed with any of the listed types of cancer, was 1.8-2 times higher than for the control group whose biological parents did not have the corresponding diseases. At the same time, breast, prostate or colon cancer in adoptive parents did not increase the risk of developing these diseases in their adopted children.

Moreover, participants whose biological parents had cancer developed the disease earlier than participants whose biological parents did not suffer from the corresponding disease. On the other hand, the diagnosis of foster parents did not affect the age at which the disease developed in the children they adopted.

According to the authors, the revealed pattern does not mean that lifestyle is not an important factor affecting the likelihood of developing malignant tumors. However, the results indicate that the risk of developing the three most common types of cancer is mainly determined by genetic predisposition.

Article by Bengt Zoller et al. Familial transmission of prostate, breast and colorectal cancer in adoptees is related to cancer in biological but not in adoptive parents: A nationwide family study published in the European Journal of Cancer.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Lund University:
Genetics dominant risk factor in common cancers.

02.07.2014