Hereditary cancer syndromes

Figure 1 Mechanisms of hereditary cancer predisposition. Single cancer-driving mutation is usually fully compensated, therefore carriers of germline pathogenic variants may remain healthy during a prolonged period of time. However, since every cell in the target organ already contains one alteration in cancer gene, the probability of accumulation of a critical mass of additional oncogenic mutations in any given cell clone is high, and cancer manifestation often occurs at a relatively young age.