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Family Histories Can Help Combat Cancer

This is true even when those histories are "self-reported" -- relayed by a patient to his or her doctor, a new study finds.

Researchers have long wondered if self-reported family histories were accurate enough to properly assess risk. For example, you may tell your doctor that your father had melanoma because he told you that he had skin cancer. He might have had, however, squamous or basal cell skin cancer -- much less deadly forms of the disease.

"Family history information might change how we manage a patient," said Dr. Harvey Murff, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the department of Veterans Affairs in the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System.