Mom has oropharyngeal and breast cancer - am I at risk too?

Hi all, new here! Apologies if this is in the wrong place!

My mom was diagnosed with Oropharyngeal cancer a few weeks ago, it was primarily in her mouth but has spread through her jaw and developed as a large tumour in her neck, including her lymph node - Stage 4, p16 negative, not fit for treatment at present due to being severly underweight and even if she is accepted for treatment eventually, there is only a 10-20% chance of it doing any good so overall very poor prognosis of 'months' :(.

Whilst she was in hospital she felt a small lump in her breast also which has now been diagnosed as a second primary cancer and not related to the above. However this cancer is very early stages and treatable - not that it makes a whole lot of difference given the stage 4 in her neck - pretty sure this new doctor hadn't fully read her notes as he was full of hope and confidence he will 'make her better' :|... yes anyway

My question is, I know some types on breast cancer are hereditary as I have been reading about the BRCA genes. So will they routinley test my mom for this gene and if its positive will I be able to be tested too? And my daughter when she is older?

I am so paranoid I am also at risk, the last few weeks since her diagnosis have been awful and it's really knocked me off my feet. I don't EVER want my children to feel how I am feeling at the moment, absolutley heartbroken and physically and emotionally drained. It's terrified me to the core as I was only of those 'it'll never happen to me' type of people as there's never been any other cancer diagnosis' in our family but see now how ignorant I was and the truth it really doesn't care who it attacks >:)

 

  • Welcome to Cancer Chat Feather although I'm sorry about your mom.

    I hope this information we have on our website about inherited genes helps to clear things up but if you have any other questions or would just like to talk to someone about this then do give our cancer nurses a call. They're available Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m on 0808 800 4040.

    I hope you hear from some of our members who have experience of this soon but you're more than welcome to join in on any discussions you find about this using the 'search forum' option in the blue bar above.

    Kind regards, 

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator