Cancer Risks

I think every parent realizes that their child will face a variety of problems, illnesses, and sorrow in their lifetime.   Even with that knowledge it's still hard to hear that your child will likely have to deal with cancer.  The good news is that the cancers shown to correlate with PTEN are curable if caught early.  Try to remember that information is power. 

I recently read an article entitled "Lifetime Cancer Risks in Individuals with Germline PTEN Mutations." This study followed all types of PTEN mutations including: insertions, deletions, indels, splice site mutations, and the category we fall under "large deletions".  The article was published by the American Association of Cancer Research, and most of it went over my head.  However I was able to glean a few details which I've compiled into this simple list.  The list includes the cancers associated with PTEN mutations/  the percent chance that someone with a PTEN will face this type cancer/ and the age to start screenings:

• Breast Cancer (Females with PTEN mutations 85.2%) - Cases start appearing at 30 years of age.
• Epithelial Thyroid (35.2%) Cases start appearing in infancy
• Endometrial (28.2%) Cases start appearing at 25 years of age.
• Colorectal (9%) Cases begin appearing around age 40
• Kidney (33.6%) Cases begin appearing around age 40
• Melanoma (6%)  Earliest case documented was age 3

Though these numbers are intimidating I'm so glad that the research is being done.  Its nice to have a resource available.  The research is moving forward, and the more information the better.