Title: Bowel Cancer Susceptibility - Dr Demetra Georgiou
Description: This podcast is about bowel cancer and the syndromes associated to bowel cancer. It explains the genes involved and how the syndromes can be inherited within families. It is also made for people with family history of bowel cancer syndromes or people that have history of this condition themselves.
Transcript:
Bowel Cancer is relatively common because it affects 1 out of 20 individuals in the population. It is usually not inherited however in some occasions we know that it runs in families. Some common syndromes include HNPCC, which is Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colon Cancer or FAP, which is Familial AdenomatousPolyposis. Of course there are some other rare forms of bowel cancer syndromes, which I’m not going to talk about today but you can of course refer to us if you have any questions about them. HNPCC affected individuals usually have few polyps in their colon and they might also be affected by some other types of cancers as well. On the other hand individuals affected with FAP might develop hundreds or even thousands of polyps in the bowel. These genetic syndromes are caused by genetic alterations. Genetic alterations work like spelling mistakes in the genetic code. So we know that we all carry thousands of genes and genes come in pairs, one of them is inherited from a mother and one from a father so if one of them has a genetic alteration then there is a risk that you might develop bowel cancer . Bowel cancer syndromes are usually inherited through a dominant manner, which means that the individual who carries the genetic disposition has 50% chance of passing on the altered copy of the gene to each of his/her children. However not everyone who carries that genetic disposition would go on to develop that disease. We know that diet is very significant when it comes to bowel cancer syndromes because diet rich in red meat might actually increase bowel cancer risks whereas a diet balanced, which is rich in vegetables and fibre intake might actually reduce bowel cancer risk. We always advise our patients to be careful and not consume excess amounts of alcohol and try to have a healthy balanced lifestyle. Individuals who are found to family history or have a genetic disposition can benefit from surveillance and prevention options, which can be colonoscopies or other scans and of course in some cases, they can benefit from prophylactic surgery. We always advise our patients to be bowel aware and report every incident of bleeding, change in bowel habit or of course abdominal discomfort to their GP or straight to us.