Genetic predisposition to cancer

Over the last 30 years there has been a burgeoning development of genetic risk assessment and ‘family history’ clinics to deal with the ever-increasing demand from individuals at increased risk of cancer because of their family history. More recently, even those with no family history who develop certain cancers are at substantial risk of having underlying germline pathogenic genetic variants, whose identification alters their treatment. Risk of inherited cancer can be divided into (1) known syndromes characterized by specific clinical features (e.g.