Are GBM brain tumors hereditary

Answer 1

Gliomas are not frequently hereditary, although a small percentage of patients do see a familial pattern. Early studies have shown that up to 10% of glioma patients have a 1st degree relative also diagnosed with the disease. Individuals with a family history of specific cancers other than glioma may have an increased glioma risk as well. One of the earliest studies of hereditary glioma rates was conducted by several prominent neuro surgeons and published in 2003:

Cancer in First-Degree Relatives and Risk of Glioma in Adults

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/12/12/1443.full

In 2009, researchers at UCSF discovered an actual inherited link in familial gliomas, which may exist in as many as 20% of cases. UCSF genetic epidemiologists Margaret Wrensch, PhD, Jeffrey Chang, MD, PhD, and John Wiencke, PhD published their work in the July 5, 2009 online edition of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.

Brain Cancer Linked to Inherited Genetic Risk

http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2009/07/8190/genetic-risk-brain-cancer-glioma-called-glioblastoma

In 2007, researcher Melissa Bondy, PhD of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, introduced the GLIOGENE Project as an international, multi-institutional, five-year study to determine genetic risk factors to help predict brain tumors in families of glioma patients. Results from this study should be available after 2012. For more information on GLIOGENE, see:

http://www.mdanderson.org/publications/cancerwise/archives/2007-january/cancerwise-january-2007-worldwide-study-looks-at-inherited-brain-tumors.html

Answer 2

as far as is known at the moment they are not. More research is being done on this subject but it is not thought to be hereditory.