Pedigrees & Family History

To find out if cancer runs in your family, doctors and genetic counselors look at your family's history of cancer. A picture of your family's history is called a pedigree.

Here is a pedigree.

• Females are circles.
• Males are squares.
• A diagonal line through a circle or square means the person has died.

If a circle or square is solid, it means that the person:

• Has a disease, or
• Is a carrier. This means the person has a mutation but may or may not have the disease.