Cancer Syndromes

Cancer syndromes refer to situations where patients develop more than one tumor in their life time.  Some of these tumors may be benign and some may be cancerous.   The type of these tumors are same among all patients with these syndromes.  Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN) is the best known of cancer syndromes.  It has Type I and Type II. 

MEN Type II is characterized by Medullary cancer of thyroid, which is found in majority of patients and Pheochromocytoma, which is a benign tumor of adrenal glands causing high blood pressure, and is present in 50 % of affected individuals. There exist other variations of this disease : MEN Type II A, MEN Type II B.

MEN-II A is characterized by hyperparathyroidism ( due to a benign tumor in the parathyroid gland, located behind thyroid gland.)  This tumor produces a hormone which causes high calcium levels in blood. RET mutation has been detected in a limited number of patients and families with this illness

Cancer Genetic issues