My wife died of a genetic related cancer a bit over a year or so ago so I know a fair bit about this subject.
Some cancers are genetic in that if you have a particular gene you have a much higher liklihood of developing a particular cancer. These are the exception though and vast majority of cancers however are not. They are caused by aging, exposure to chemicals or in many cases just chance.
The triggers to suspect a cancer might be genetic are if you have relatives who have had cancer unusually early or have a number of close relatives who have all had the same type of cancer or if the cancer is unusual (eg a male relative who develops breast cancer)
Now you haven't given any specific details so it's hard to know if any of those might apply but if they do your GP can arrange a genetic test (on you). Normally you would have to have specific risk factors as above for them to authorise this.
You can have a private gene test done for about £200 and my son had this done.
The NHS will generally insist on councilling before genetic tests because you do need to think carefuly about it - it is after all something you can't untell someone and there may be nothing that can be done if someone does have a genetic issue so you need to consider why you want to know and the affect that knowing might have on you and your familly.
However as I say the vast majority of cancers are not genetic and if you have simply had an older relative die of one of the more common cancers there is no reason to think that there might be a genetic cause.
Sorry Jack, I've not been on for a while and I should have checked your other posts to get the details.
My Wife also died of an ovarian related cancer she had a genetic defect called BRCA1 a lot of her familly had that too. There is a related one BRCA2.
Whilst these are "Breast cancer" genes they can cause ovarian too.These are still a minority of cases - Unfortunately ovarian cancer is still a far to common cancer.
The risk factors for these are again if you have a number of close relatives who have had Ovarian or breast cancers, a male with breast cancer or if you have an Ashkenazi jewish background.
We found that the NHS would pay for my daughter to be tested for the gene (negative) but not my son because the claimed that it was not a risk for males. That is only partially true as there is an increased risk of bowel cancer for males with BRCA2 and we have seen a number of male deaths from cancer at an early age in her familly so I'm not convinced.
Consequently we paid for my son to have his test privately - unfortunately he is positive but at least we know to look out for any signs and if he should for example develop a breast lump the GP will take it seriously.
I have never heard of a post mortem DNA test generally I think the test is done on surviving relatives.
Like I say Jack I've not heard of that on someone post mortem for a cancer case but I have heard of court orders for paternity reasons. The thing is that while you may think you have the right to ask for this legally nobody has "ownership" of someone's boy after they die so you might find getting such a test performed less straightforward than you imagine.
I've gone and looked up the numbers for you and it seems that 20-25% of Ovarian cancers are believed to be genetic.
Although males carry a much lower risk to themselves the way the genetics of this work is that they have a 50:50 chance of passing the gene on to their offspring so if your mother did have it you would have a 50:50 chance of having the gene and a 50:50 chance of passing it to any children.
So if you were able to get a test done on your mother and it was positive you'd want a test yourself - so really you probably want a test on yourself anyway.
The thing to understand is this gene cannot "skip a generation" If your mother was positive and you were negative then there would be no way any children of yours could inherit it it would be out of the line.
If you do decide to go ahead with a test shop around I'm seeing prices like £2000 being quoted around the place. As a male I think you'll be refused a test on the NHS if my experience is anything to go by.
You also want to think very carefully about things like how it would affect your relationship with your familly - if you have children I don't know or if you are single about how knowing might affect your relationship with any future partner. It's not exactly first date material but not something you can bring up on a honeymoon either!!!
In any case unless you have a lot of people with breast or ovarian cancer in the familly or they developed one of those very young say 30s or 40s then the odds are strong that it was not a genetic cancer
Oh this might be a bit close to the sites terms and conditions and If so I apologise in advance to the moderators and I stress I am not specifically endorsing this particular company but the one we used for my son was 23andme.com
Others include genehealthuk.com and labtestsonline.org.uk
