What are the Chance's of a past Cancer Patient passing the Cancer gene on the their Children?

Question

I had Cancer at the age of 4 months of age. I'm terrified that I will pass it down to my children. I need to know what the Chance's are of passing it on.

I'm 21 now I had Acute Lymphatic Leukemia

Answer 1

If you have been in remission for this long, You are considered cured.(that was an answer for your other question) I also have never heard of a gene that you can pass on for leukaemia. The gene that mutates (if this is how your leukaemia came to be) would be normal again as your in remission. If it was defective you would still have the cancer.
This is my understanding of the cancer, my daughter had AML and had a defective gene at diagnosis, after having chemo, her cancer is gone and her defective gene normal again.

This however is a question for a genetic councillor to get an accurate and correct answer.

Answer 2

It depends on what kind of cancer. Cancer does run in my family, breast, cervix, uterine, bowel. all of these tendencies to get these cancers are possible to pass down through generations.Sence you were only 4 months old that is a hard one to answer but your Dr. could tell you.

Answer 3

What type of childhood cancer did you have? There are different types of childhood cancer, and a few are genetic (Wilms' Tumour and retinoblastoma).

UK Childhood Cancer Genetics
http://www.cancerindex.org/geneweb//gchild.htm

National Cancer Society:
Childhood Cancers: Prevention, Genetics, Causes
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/prevention-genetics-causes/childhoodcancers

Hope this gives you a place to start your research on this important topic. Good luck.

Answer 4

It depends on what type of cancer it is and the mix of your spouses genes.