Dr. Sanjay Junega sits down with Dena Goldberg who is a genetic counselor practicing in Los Angeles. She received her Masters in Genetics and Hereditary Cancers.
First and foremost, only about 10-15% of cancers are hereditary, meaning they were passed down from a parent. This means that 85-90% of cancer patients did not get it from their parents.
There are many different genetic tests out there, and Dena cautions people on only using one option as it could not be complete. The most valuable aspect of speaking to a genetic counselor is the counseling aspect. The natural concern that comes with getting cancer affects people in ways they don’t even realize. There is a lot of psychosocial and emotional stress that comes along with cancer risk and believing that you are at risk.
There was a lady that Dena was working with who believed that she was going to die young from pancreatic cancer and did not take out a retirement fund or have kids. The night she received her genetic test explaining how low her risk actually was, she decided to have children!