When to alter cancer screenings
Not only is it important for physicians to be fully informed about any cancer in their patients’ family histories, but a massive new study led by a Harvard researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and a University of California scientist indicates that it is important to update that history whenever there are contemporaneous changes in it. While it has long been known that family history is among the most important determinants of an individual’s risk of cancer and the details of that history — whether and at what ages close relatives were diagnosed with particular tumors — can affect recommendations for screening examinations such as colonoscopies and mammograms, the results of the study in the July 13 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) show that changes in family history significant enough to alter screening recommendations are common in adults ages 30 to 50. “We wanted to find out whether changes in...