Hematologist-Oncologist Questions Cancer

Is blood cancer hereditary?

My grandfather and father both died of blood cancer. What are the chances I would get the disease too? Is there any way to prevent it?

2 Answers

anytime individual gets blood cancer in multiple generations, then germ line mutation status needs to be tested. such as mutations in ASXL1 has been reported in father and son with acute myeloid leukemia. new leukemia predisposition syndromes, including ANKRD26, GATA2, PAX5, ETV6, and DDX41 has been reported (Blood,2016; Dec2nd). There are many syndrome predispose individual to leukemia: Fanconi anemia, problem with Telomere gene length and mutations, Trisomy 21, RASopathies (NF1, Noonan syndrome). I would recommend you to ask your doctor to send the germ line mutation panel and somatic mutation panel (next generation sequencing if you have some of old slides and pathology blocks from your father record) and monitor you closely.
It depends. There is a familial incidence in some forms of hematologic malignancies, but not all.