The Further Study of a Cancer Family

In the Archives of Internal Medicine, November, 1913, Vol. 12, pages 546–555, the writer reported a study of “Heredity with Reference to Carcinoma” based upon the cases of carcinoma examined for diagnostic purposes in the Pathological Laboratory of the University of Michigan during the period of 1895–1913. This statistical study, the facts of which were drawn from the relatively incomplete surgical histories accompanying the operative material, revealed a surprisingly high number of cases showing in the family history a multiple occurrence of carcinoma, in some cases so striking that the use of the terms “cancer family” and “cancer fraternity” was justified. This study seemed to show that a marked susceptibility to carcinoma exists in the case of certain family generations and family groups; that this susceptibility is frequently associated with a marked susceptibility to tuberculosis, and also with lowered fertility. The multiple occurrence of carcinoma in a family generation practically always was associated with its occurrence in a preceding generation; and the family tendency was found to be more marked when carcinoma occurred in both maternal and paternal lines. Family susceptibility to carcinoma was shown particularly in the case of carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract and the uterus. In a family showing the occurrence of carcinoma in several generations there was shown a decided tendency for the neoplasm to develop at an earlier age in successive generations, and an especial degree of malignancy was often noted in such cases.