I am so sorry to hear about the loss of 2 daughters to cancer and having another daughter at the moment in palliative care. This must be such a difficult time in your life and I can't even begin to imagine how you must be feeling right now.
When there is a strong history of cancer is in the family, especially amongst siblings it is not unusual for family members to have questions about why and how this may have happened, but of course if your daughters experienced 3 very different types of cancer there may be no strong associated link to be found, which may be disappointing to hear.
Cancer is described as a genetic disease because it is caused by mistakes or faults in the genes of in a single cell. But in most cases of cancer, these gene faults develop over someone's lifetime and are sporadic ( just happen) and not inherited.
Although the genes we inherit may influence our risk of cancer, this may not be by very much. I'm afraid no one is risk free and the risk of cancer increases for all of us as we get older. Other known causes of cancer such as smoking, obesity, alcohol, exposure to certain chemicals and so on are explained here including a section about reducing the risk, but this may not shed any more light on your daughters situations.
It might be useful to look at our section explaining genes and inherited cancer risk at this link but once again this may not be relevant.
We usually advise family members who have several members of the family who have had cancer to talk this through with their GP to talk about what their own risk may be. However I do wonder if your daughter who is currently in palliative care has talked through her sisters cancers with her doctor so they could assess if there may be a link that needed further investigation, such as genetic testing, if not this could still be brought up in conversation to understand more.
There is research going into the causes of cancer with family history and genetic causes as special interests. You can read about some of these trials on our database here.
You haven't said which cancers have affected your daughters so it is difficult to give you any more precise information about what may be going on in these areas or if you or other members of the family could take part in research at this time. Do get back in touch if you have further questions or we can be of more help to you. You are also welcome to call the nurses on 0808 800 4040 mon-fri 9-5 if you prefer.
