When We Discover the “Why” of Cancer
My son might inherit the cancer that killed his dad
It’s been three years and two months since my young husband died of kidney cancer. Yesterday, my mom-in-law called with news: a doctor has diagnosed the family with a rare genetic predisposition. They’ve suffered collapsed lungs for generations, which (we now know) is a red flag for Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome.
This rare syndrome affects the skin and lungs and increases the risk of developing non-cancerous and cancerous kidney tumours.
Discovering why my husband died of cancer
I’ve never wasted time wondering why or how Brock got cancer. It was a mystery to everyone: a thirty-five-year-old farmer of certified-organic crops, who didn’t work with known carcinogens or smoke. He didn’t like strong smells, so we never used scents or strong chemicals in the house.
I figured we’d never know how Brock got cancer and had made peace with that.
Knowing now that he was likely killed by a genetic disorder doesn’t change anything. It’s a rare disorder, and he didn’t develop the benign skin tumours that signal it: I’m not surprised we didn’t discover the disorder or his cancer sooner. There’s no one to blame.
