Hello marywj

I just wanted to let you know that our nurse team is now out of the office until Tuesday morning but they will reply as soon as they're able to after the bank holiday weekend. 

In the meantime, you may find this information on the NHS website about predictive genetic testing helpful. 

Best wishes, 
Jenn
Cancer Chat moderator 

Hello Mary and thanks for your post,

I am sorry to hear that you have a history of prostate cancer in your family and I can understand how this may make you more concerned about your son's risks.

It might be helpful to go and discuss this with your GP. It is through your son's GP that they would be referred to a genetic clinic for testing if they felt that their history warranted screening. 

When cancer is in the family, people often assume that this greatly increases their risk of developing it, but this isn't always true.  Although the genes we inherit may influence our risk, this might not be by very much. No one is risk free and the risk of cancer increases for all of us as we get older. This is quite a complicated topic and it might be useful to look at our website which has a section explaining genes and inherited cancer risk at this link

Cancer is caused by build up of changes in our genes and/or the way our genes behave. Changes occur because of mistakes or faults which in most cases of cancer have developed over someone's lifetime and are not inherited. Faulty cancer genes can be passed from one generation to the next, but they are uncommon.

Genetic testing in the NHS is only usually offered to people with a strong family history, as this predicts who is most likely to have inherited a cancer gene fault. We have more information about risks and causes and about screening on our website. For prostate cancer follow the links here and here

Prostate Cancer UK have some useful information about genetic testing which you can read about here

There are various studies that are around that are looking at the genetic causes of prostate cancer. Have a look at this study here and here

We are not involved in recruiting patient's in to the studies but we have permission to put them on our database. 

In summary, the risk of prostate cancer, can be increased with a family history, but this might not be by enough to have genetic testing or additional screening on the NHS . This is something that your GP can advise you about so do discuss it with them when you have the chance.

If you would like to discuss any of this with one of the nurses on the helpline then you are welcome to give us a ring so we can go through any of this with you.

Our number is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and we are here Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

All the best,

Catherine

Thank you Catherine for that very detailed and informative response.

Mary x