[Lien]

Congrats! 9 years survival is awesome. 49 years is even better, so go for that

As to hereditary components: There's been a lot of cancer in my family, both on my mother's and my father's side. I recently gave a blood sample to the Dutch National Cancer Hospital where I had my rads. They are looking for genetic info and I was happy to cooperate.

There wasn't so much BC, but many different kinds of cancer and I wonder whether these were related. On my Mom's side:

Her uncle died of lung cancer
Her aunt died of BC
Her only brother died of pancreatic cancer
Her niece died of Non Hodgkin lymphoma (aged 38) (She only had two nephews, one niece)
She died of esophageal cancer herself
We lost touch with the rest of her family, so I don't know about them.

On my father's side:
Because he is Jewish and we live in Europe, most of his relatives did not survive the war.
But:
His only brother died of Hodkin's lymphoma
He had prostate cancer, but survived that

And then there's me, Breastcancer.

As 1 in 3 people develop cancer, the score in our family is much higher. I have always thought that there are more hereditary cancers than we know about at present. I also think that maybe the environment of the cancer cells determines (among other things) whether they can grow and metastasize. So if our genetic make-up is cancer friendly, we let the nasties grow bigger. If we could do something about that, we could keep the cancer cells in check.

Ofcourse I'm no researcher and I don't know nearly enough about it, but still... I wonder if any research is done into that.

I am so grateful for all those who are trying to find a way to stop cancer, who are researching, sharing info, going to conferences etc. I wish I could do that, but at the moment my other health issues keep me confined to the couch several hours a day. I can read though!

Jacqueline