The Familial Cancer Clinic was designed to serve as a resource and information center for families and individuals concerned about their genetic risk of cancer. Genetic counselors usually work as members of health care teams including medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, nutritionists and social workers.

Genetic counselors:

• obtain detailed medical and family health histories
• help families understand the medical facts
• arrange and interpret genetic tests
• explain the way heredity contributes to the condition and risk of recurrence in a specified relative
• assess the genetic, recurrence and familial risks of a genetic condition.

After your cancer risk assessment, appropriate screening and prevention strategies are discussed. For some individuals, this may include genetic testing. The benefits and risks of genetic testing will be discussed prior to any testing. Typically, this process takes two or three appointments and there may be up to three months between visits.

Individuals should consider a cancer genetics evaluation if:

• the cancer in their family was diagnosed at an early age (less than 50 years)
• several relatives have the same (or related) type of cancer
• the cancer in their family is bilateral (bilateral means occurring in paired organs such as breast or kidney)
• rare cancers are seen in their family (for instance, male breast cancer)
• individuals in their family have multifocal cancers (multifocal means more than one tumor in the same organ)
• individuals in their family have multiple primary cancers (primary cancers are "new" cancers—not cancer that results from the spreading of cancer from one organ to another)