Can genetic factors induce skin cancer?

Can cancer be inherited? This is something that many people are somewhat ambiguous about. Many young patients who have suffered from skin cancer have such doubts: Will my cancer have an impact on my children? Similarly, many young people whose parents have colorectal cancer have the same confusion.

There are generally two types of hereditary diseases. One is a disease caused directly by gene changes, which is a true hereditary disease, and hemophilia is one of them. The other is called genetic susceptibility, and hypertension and some cancers belong to this category. It is not directly inherited, but with a certain genetic trait, the probability of contracting a certain disease is greatly increased compared to ordinary people.

Controversy over the inheritance of skin cancer

Whether the onset of skin cancer is related to genetic factors is a controversial issue. Among the many possible causes of skin cancer, genetics is often not mentioned. No obvious familial clustering of skin cancer has been found so far. No survey or research has shown that the offspring of skin cancer patients are more likely to develop skin cancer than the average person.

But at the same time, the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin is higher in patients with certain hereditary skin diseases such as xeroderma pigmentosum and albinism. The occurrence of skin melanoma is related to the loss of tumor suppressor genes. In addition, the most direct evidence is that the incidence of skin cancer in Caucasians is much higher than that in Asians. The incidence of skin cancer in southern Australia is almost 100 times that of my country. All of the above are strong evidence that skin cancer is related to genetic factors. But in fact, it is not difficult to find that the pathogenic mechanism of the above genetic factors is that the reduction of intracellular melanin leads to increased ultraviolet radiation. Therefore, in the traditional sense, heredity is not a direct pathogenic factor of skin cancer, but only a susceptibility factor.