Hi everyone, my dad had three unrelated cancers towards the end of his life and I've read that this may mean his cancer could have been genetic. Does this mean I should get a cancer gene test? He died aged 68 from the third cancer.
I am sorry to read about what happened to your dad, this must have been very hard for you all. From what you have told us it is difficult to gauge whether or not he might have had a gene fault that increased his risk. When this is the case you usually see a pattern of specific cancers occurring in a number of close relatives at an earlier age that expected. There is more information about this here.
Also there isn't a single gene test that can be done to check your risk, a number of different genetic faults can increase the risk of cancer. The best thing to do would be to talk things through with your GP and see if they think you fit the criteria for being referred to a genetics or family cancer clinic for an assessment. They would look at your dad's medical history and that of other close relatives to work out if you might be at increased risk and assess if any gene tests might be appropriate.
