If One Twins Affected by Cancer, Will the Twin Will Follow?

Medical Video: Twins battle cancer together

Do you have twins? Or even have a twin? Twins are often equated in various ways, not just the same clothes, the same bags, or various other equipment. Not only that, many say that twins have mutual bonds that are strong enough to each other. When his twin feels sad or angry, he will feel something. But is it true that when one twin feels pain, the other twin will feel the same pain? What if the twin has cancer? Will he experience the same cancer because he has the same gene?

The following is an explanation related to the research that examined cancer that occurred in one twin brother.

Twins are at risk of developing the same cancer

There are two types of twins, namely identical and non-identical twins. Identical twins have a very similar physical appearance, so people will find it difficult to distinguish between the two. Whereas in non-identical twins, the physical appearance is not too similar so it is easy to distinguish. Recently a study conducted by researchers from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health if one twin brother had cancer, it is not impossible that the other twin siblings can also experience cancer.

The study was reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association, involving as many as 80 thousand identical twins and 123 thousand twins were not identical, and carried out in 4 countries namely Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Researchers conducted research and followed these twin brothers in 32 years, namely from 1943 to 2010.

From this study it is known that if one of the identical twins has cancer, the other twin has a risk of cancer by 14%. Whereas twins are not identical, they only have a 5% chance of developing cancer. Not only that, the results showed 20 of the 23 types of cancer studied, if one twin had a certain type of cancer, then his twin siblings had a 2 times higher risk of experiencing the same type of cancer, even with a higher stage. This is evident in types of cancer such as prostate cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer, and ovarian or ovarian cancer.

Are all due to genetic factors?

A pair of twins actually share each other 'genes in their bodies. In identical twins, they divide almost all of their genes, so the genes of the twins are the same. While twins are not identical, they only share half of their total genes, making them almost the same as siblings but not twins. Genetic factors may result in the occurrence of cancer with a risk of 30 to 60 percent, including prostate cancer, uterine cancer, breast cancer, testicular cancer, kidney cancer, and skin cancer.

However, the researchers concluded that many factors can cause cancer that occur in twins. Not only genetic factors that influence and enhance cancer, but also several factors such as lifestyle factors and the surrounding environment. Lifestyle factors can be used as reasons because, twins are more likely to have the same lifestyle. Whether it's the selection of the same food, the same parenting style, and applying the same lifestyle.

For example, when a twin child smokes and then develops lung cancer due to his habits. It is possible for her twin to have lung cancer due to smoking or if she does not smoke, she often breathes secondhand smoke which can also cause lung cancer. While he also has a greater risk of developing cancer because of gene factors compared to people who do not have twins who have cancer.

Indeed, there is still insufficient scientific evidence to arise regarding the relationship between twins and cancer. Therefore, research involving twins needs to be done further because it is very important to understand. By doing research like this, researchers can find out the relationship between genes and various degenerative diseases such as cancer.