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For more on Risk Assessment
at Fox Chase Cancer Center,
call 1-877-627-9684.
What to Expect
Our Risk Assessment Team—physicians, nurses, and genetic counselors—can help you determine your chances of getting cancer and whether you and your family members are at increased risk for certain types of cancers.
Meet our Team
Amy's Story
Hear One Woman Share Her Risk Assessment Experience
Without the constant worry of breast cancer, Amy can enjoy motherhood.
The risk assessment process involves:
- A detailed review of your family history of cancer
- A look at your own medical history
- A way to learn your chance of getting a specific type of cancer
- A personal plan to reduce your cancer risk
A detailed review of your family history of cancer
Your family's medical history, or 'pedigree', will help our counselors assess your risk of developing cancer.
Scientists believe that about 10 percent of cancers are hereditary, or passed down through the family. Talking to family members about the types of cancers in the family as well as the age when family members were diagnosed are the first steps in the cancer risk assessment process. The following are some clues that cancer may run in your family:
- Multiple people in the family who have had the same or a related type of cancer
- Family members who have had more than one type of cancer
- Cancer diagnosed at a young age
- Rare cancer diagnosis (Example: male breast cancer)
- Family members who have had multiple pre-cancerous colon polyps
- Certain ethnic or racial backgrounds
