Not necessarily. It really depends on the pattern of cancer in your family. Your doctor may suspect Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome—the name given to inherited risk for these diseases—based on the following criteria:

• Two or more family members on the same side (your mother’s or father’s) have been diagnosed with breast and/or ovarian cancer.
• One or more cases of these cancers were diagnosed before age 50. (Because most cancers develop later in life, younger diagnosis suggests the possibility of inherited risk.)
• Your affected relative(s) is your first-degree relation (mother, sister, daughter).
• Any relative had cancer more than once, had breast cancer in both breasts, or has had both breast and ovarian cancer.
• You are of Eastern European Jewish ancestry and have had breast or ovarian cancer, or a history of breast or ovarian cancer in close relatives.
• A close relative has had male breast cancer.

To fully understand whether or not you might be “high risk,” you need to go through a formal risk assessment process with a genetic counselor, a health professional specially trained to provide information and advice about inherited conditions.

Reviewed by Jill Stopfer, MS