Genetic testing of hereditary cancers:

  Cancer is one type of the gene diseases, the major pathogenic factors including congenital family hereditary factors and acquired mutations. Numerous evidences indicated that genetic factors play a very important role in tumorigenesis indeed. The previous parental pathogenic genetic mutations will be passed onto the next generation and the probability of these harmful mutations transmitted into their children is about 50%. It presents as people acquiring the harmful genetic mutations with features of familial aggregation, this leads to their dramatically increased risk of cancers. The genetic testing of hereditary cancers are mainly focusing on development of detection schemes of specific tumor susceptibility genes for individual patients. Combined with the new generation of gene analysis and bioinformatics, this testing will clarify the genetic carrying situations and the susceptibility of cancers of patients. Then targeted prevention and intervention measures will be adopted according to the analysis results, and this technique will assist the clinical experts scientifically in designing effective individualized follow-up plans and predict cancer risks.

  The so-called genetic susceptibility of cancers is certain population are more sensitive to external stimuli and more likely to develop tumors under the same conditions. When their immunity system is weakened, they are unable to eliminate the mutant cells at an early stage which result in tumorigenesis. The testing targets include the oncogenic genes discovered in hereditary cancers, the tumor susceptibility genes that monitor and prevent multi-step carcinogenesis, and oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes that directly cause disorders of cell proliferation and differentiation.