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medpundit |
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Sunday, September 03, 2006As Chad Kingsbury watches his daughter playing in the sandbox behind their suburban Chicago house, the thought that has flashed through his mind a million times in her two years of life comes again: Chloe will never be sick. Chloe has been fortunate to survive an embryo culling. She does not carry the gene for colon cancer that runs in her father's family. Does that mean she is 100% guaranteed to never ever have colon cancer? No, it doesn't: About 75 percent of all colorectal cancer occurs in people with no known predisposing factors for the disease. This belief that cancer is completely hereditary is one of the most obstinante ones I encounter in my practice. Patients will tell me they don't need colonoscopies or mammograms or pap smears because cancer doesn't run in their families. This is especially true of colon cancer and breast cancer screening. We've done such a good job of publicizing the increased risk for those with positive family histories of these two cancers, that we've completely obscured the fact that most of these cancers arise spontaneously. The cost for Chloe's parents for this non-guarantee? - Tens of thousand of dollars. posted by Sydney on 9/03/2006 05:02:00 PM 1 comments 1 Comments:
"They had to listen to the religious concerns of Ms. Kingsbury's family.."
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