Understanding Hereditary Cancer 

Knowing your cancer risk can make a positive difference in the lives of you and your loved ones. If you have a personal or family history of cancer, we encourage you to learn more.

Advocate Good Shepherd offers comprehensive genetic evaluation, testing, education and counseling to help you understand your risk. Most importantly, we assist you in making informed medical decisions to manage your health and reduce the risk of developing cancer.

Many people can benefit from cancer genetic counseling. Some of the more common characteristics of families with a genetic predisposition to develop cancer include:

• cancer diagnosed at an early age
• multiple blood relatives with cancer
• more than one type of cancer in the same individual or a rare cancer (e.g. male breast cancer)
• family member who has been diagnosed with a hereditary type of cancer
• Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry and one of the above risk factor