Henry Lynch, father of cancer genetics and namesake of a type of colorectal cancer called “Lynch Syndrome,” has passed away at age 91, leaving behind a huge legacy in cancer research and treatment.
Lynch was at a hospice center in Omaha when he died. Creighton University announced his death. He spent most of his career at Creighton, and it houses the Hereditary Cancer Center that he founded in 1984. His son, Patrick Lynch, says the cause was congestive heart failure.
Read More- Three relatives that have colon cancer
- Two consecutive generations with colon cancer (for instance, your mother and your grandmother on your mother's side)
- One of these relatives diagnosed before age 50.
If this sounds like your family, genetic testing will be the next step. If you test positive, you'll need to undergo earlier screening for colon cancer, starting at age 25. If you do develop colon cancer with Lynch Syndrome, then your treatment will be tailored to prevent additional cancers from developing.
In 1971, he also identified a hereditary form of breast and ovarian cancers, which in the 1990s was linked to the BRCA genes.
BRCA a mutation on one of two genes, BRCA1 or BRCA2, each a protein that works as a tumor suppressor. These genes help repair damaged DNA, and are important for ensuring the stability of each cell's genetic material.
When either of these genes is altered, that mutation can mean that its protein product does not function properly, or that damaged DNA may not be repaired correctly. These inherited mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 can increase the risk of female breast and ovarian cancers, and have also been associated with increased risks for several other cancers.
Dr. Rebecca Arend, Associate Scientist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, on the BRCA mutation
Dr. Rebecca Arend, Associate Scientist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, explains the mutation in terms of its ability to repair damaged DNA: "What a BRCA mutation is, is a defect in your ability to repair a double-strand break (in your DNA)." The BRCA mutation (which is passed on from a father or a mother), can cause a variety of cancers, including fallopian tube and peritoneal cancer, which are ovarian cancers.
Furthermore, while about 1.3 percent of women in the general population will develop ovarian cancer sometime during their lives, it is estimated that about 44 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation, and about 17 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA2 mutation, will develop ovarian cancer."
"Henry Lynch occupies a distinguished place in the pantheon of the greatest cancer geneticists of the modern era," Kenneth Offit, chief of the Clinical Genetics Service at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said in an interview according to the Post. "He defined the hereditary basis of common human cancers during a period when these views were considered heretical and lived to see the genetic basis of cancers become part of the practice of preventive medicine."
"Nobody believed me," Dr. Lynch said, according to Creighton University. "But I knew we had something here. I knew we could potentially save lives."
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