We asked about this when my wife got her BC diagnosis, because we also have a daughter. We got told the majority of cancers are random, meaning there's no family history to be had. The types of cancers, and the age of those having the cancers matter a lot. For example, breast cancer and ovarian cancers can be linked if there's 2 or more people within the same bloodline that have had the diagnosis. Even then, age matters a lot. Like a lot. Say your gran, who is 85 developed BC, it wouldn't be considered genetic due to age. So if gran had bc, and say, a young sibling developed BC, it would be put down to coincidence, which happens a lot. Doctors look for a pattern, say if your mum had had BC before the age of 50, and your sister developed ovarian or BC at the age of 34. That would be looked into. More so if there were more than two instances.

It is something that crosses your mind, because we have been there too, but it seems like the cancer in your family's case is just sheer bad luck. It's more likely 2 family members just get cancer through bad luck rather than genes. However, there are some genetic things that do make cancers more likely within a group of family members, but those are a minority. I think a lot of people just assume cancer is something that is mostly genetic related because that seems to be a myth that we have all heard and picked up on through the years. Not too dissimilar to how people still think you can catch a cold from being out in the rain. A lot of people still think this. The cold is a virus, not something you can catch from rain.

We asked about this when my wife got her BC diagnosis, because we also have a daughter. We got told the majority of cancers are random, meaning there's no family history to be had. The types of cancers, and the age of those having the cancers matter a lot. For example, breast cancer and ovarian cancers can be linked if there's 2 or more people within the same bloodline that have had the diagnosis. Even then, age matters a lot. Like a lot. Say your gran, who is 85 developed BC, it wouldn't be considered genetic due to age. So if gran had bc, and say, a young sibling developed BC, it would be put down to coincidence, which happens a lot. Doctors look for a pattern, say if your mum had had BC before the age of 50, and your sister developed ovarian or BC at the age of 34. That would be looked into. More so if there were more than two instances.

It is something that crosses your mind, because we have been there too, but it seems like the cancer in your family's case is just sheer bad luck. It's more likely 2 family members just get cancer through bad luck rather than genes. However, there are some genetic things that do make cancers more likely within a group of family members, but those are a minority. I think a lot of people just assume cancer is something that is mostly genetic related because that seems to be a myth that we have all heard and picked up on through the years. Not too dissimilar to how people still think you can catch a cold from being out in the rain. A lot of people still think this. The cold is a virus, not something you can catch from rain.