Keeping a family medical history can help assess risk

If your Aunt Tilly died of breast cancer and Uncle Joe had melanoma, be sure to let your doctor know because that information can help determine what screening tests are right for you.

"Family history information might change how we manage a patient," Dr. Harvey Murff, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, told HealthDay .

"So, our question was: That information, how good is it?" Murff asked.

To answer that question, Murff and colleagues at Vanderbilt, along with researchers from the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center in Chattanooga , Tenn. , and Boston 's Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, examined data from 14 studies on self-reported family medical histories. Their findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association .

Along with reviewing self-reported histories of cancer, the researchers also confirmed cancer diagnoses using death certificates, medical records and cancer registries.

They found that people with a parent or sibling who have a history of breast, ovarian, endometrial, colon or prostate cancer have a higher risk of developing cancer than people with no such family history.

Self-reported histories were most accurate for breast and colon cancers, according to the study. Self-reports of family histories of ovarian, endometrial and prostate cancers were not as accurate, which may be because they're less common cancers, Murff said.

However, there could be another explanation, Dr. Kristin Skinner, chief of the division of surgical oncology and director of the breast center at New York University 's Clinical Cancer Center , suggested to HealthDay .

"Until recently, cancer was a dirty word, and no one really talked about it," Skinner explained. "Plus, many women don't like to talk about their private parts, so to talk about cancer of the ovary or uterus was very hard." But, she said, she thinks that is changing because "public awareness campaigns have helped people to talk about cancer more openly."

The American Cancer Society believes that everyone should collect their family's medical history.

"Family history is an important risk factor for most cancers, including breast, colon, prostate and ovarian cancers," Heather Spencer Fiegelson, a senior epidemiologist with the society, said in a statement. "Keeping an accurate record of family medical history, just like keeping an accurate record of current prescription medications, can be an important tool to help you and your doctor discuss the most important prevention strategies."

Skinner concurred, saying that "family history does significantly impact your risk of many cancers." People should know what type of cancer family members had and how old they were when they died.