Saturday, February 4, 2017

What is Going On With the Gene CDKN2A?!


Can skin cancer and pancreatic cancer be connected? There are two genes to date that link familial melanoma, CDKN2A and CDK4. 


There is a genetic mutation in the gene CDKN2A (or P16). People who have this mutation are at a high risk for developing cancer. This certain genetic topic hits hard for me personally because my grandfather had malignant invasive melanoma and then ten years later was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and not even a year later was deceased. My mother was diagnosed with invasive malignant melanoma as well about a month ago and her oncologist is sending her for genetic testing to test her for the mutation. There is a link between this P16 gene and pancreatic cancer. I believe this is a very serious and scary problem that tumors are arising in the pancreas with the CDKN2A mutation. Families from different origins and geographical areas have been, and are currently being tested.

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