Does Leukemia Run in Families?

1918
Myron Rockwell Borden
and son Alvin

Last night I had a vivid dream that I was having a discussion with a doctor about my leukemia. He was asking about family history of diseases and conditions. Instead of answering with the usual, Hypertension, stroke, Hereditary Multiple Exostoses (osteochondromas) and my history of the bone cancer, chondrosarcoma, I said, "I have a cousin who also had leukemia.

The dream, as short as it was, awoke me with such a strong impression. It felt like an "ah ha" moment.

Yes, it's true. I do have another family member who had Leukemia. Is it coincidence? Or is there a familial link?

Within the Leukemia support groups I participate, there are quite a few people who have mentioned having other family members with the diagnosis. When I spoke to my doctor about this, he didn't think it was possible.

Of course, I spent way too much time today researching the family line to discover if others had a leukemia history. But, I got waylaid by finding there is a propensity for another kind of issue. I don't need to go into that right now, though.

Doing genealogy research on the internet, trying to connect a family name, and the names of descendant surnames to obituaries that include the word "leukemia" is very intensive.

However, I did happen across an article, Leukemia Predisposition Gene Discovered 

There is also this article:

Shall I copy these articles and give them to my doctor?

I have had my genome looked at by a company called 23andme. And as a matter of fact they apparently are looking for those who have a propensity for leukemia.

Guess what?

According to them, I have a higher chance of having Lymphoma!!! Go figure.

They can only test my maternal heritability so if they find this GATA2 gene in me, it will be from my mother's side.

I'm putting this information on here just in case there is another person related to me that has leukemia. (or chondrosarcoma).

The direct line ancestors of my cousin and I are:

Myron Rockwell Borden born Chatham, Tioga county, Pennsylvania
Alvin Borden
Ansel Borden
Seldon Borden
Samuel Borden
and so on back to the progenitor, Richard.

1960 Alvin, Velva & Lois  Borden

Anyone who does genealogy will know what all that means.

But, my closest concern regarding connection, comes from those descended from Myron, Alvin, Ansel and Seldon.

There are a lot of mother surnames I have left out, and for reasons of privacy I have not named the descendants living today.

Please don't hesitate to contact me, though, if you think you might be related to this line. You can either share in the comments or send me a personal email elizablest at gmail