Familial breast cancer and the association with colonic carcinoma

A relationship between breast and colonic cancer has been suggested so we looked at the incidence of colonic carcinoma in the relatives of familial and sporadic breast cancer patients. We found that there is an increased incidence of colonic cancer in the relatives of familial breast cancer patients as compared with the relatives of sporadic breast cancer patients. This risk was higher in men than women (P less than or equal to 0.05). The relatives of familial breast cancer patients are a high risk group for developing colonic carcinoma, and would benefit from colonic screening.