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‍Is brain cancer hereditary? This is a common concern for prospective parents—especially those considering IVF to safeguard their future children’s health. The reassuring answer is that most brain cancers are not inherited, meaning they usually don’t run in families (How can Orchid tell me about an embryo’s future risk for cancer?). These tumors typically occur due to random genetic changes in the individual, not passed down from parent to child. However, it’s important to know that a small minority of brain tumors can be linked to hereditary factors.

Is Brain Cancer Hereditary?

For the vast majority of cases, the risk of brain cancer is not something passed from parent to child. Only a small percentage of all cancers (around 5–10% of adult cases) result from inherited genetic variants (How can Orchid tell me about an embryo’s future risk for cancer?). In other words, most people diagnosed with a brain tumor do not have a family history of it. That said, there are rare instances where brain cancer can appear hereditary due to specific genetic syndromes.

Rare Genetic Syndromes and Brain Cancer Risk

While uncommon, several hereditary syndromes can increase the risk of brain tumors in a family. Examples include:

• Li-Fraumeni syndrome – A rare inherited disorder that often leads to early cancers, including brain tumors (How can Orchid tell me about an embryo’s future risk for cancer?).
• Lynch syndrome – A hereditary condition mainly linked to colon cancer risk (How can Orchid tell me about an embryo’s future risk for cancer?) that can also heighten the chance of various other cancers in the family.
• Neurofibromatosis (NF1 & NF2) – Genetic syndromes causing tumors of the nervous system (brain and spinal cord) in affected families (How can Orchid tell me about an embryo’s future risk for cancer?).

These conditions are very rare, but if present, they significantly raise the odds of certain cancers (sometimes including brain cancer) across generations. It’s important to approach this topic with perspective: most families will not have such syndromes, and therefore most brain cancers remain sporadic. Discussing these concerns with clinicians and genetic counselors can often identify families at risk and allow further testing.