We often encounter patients in the clinic who have been diagnosed with breast cancer because of their relatives or colleagues. The main concern is, “If someone around me has breast cancer, am I also at high risk”. It is true that clinically we can see breast cancer detected in some patients’ family members, and there are even cases where both mother and daughter are hospitalized at the same time. We call this case of having 2 or more breast cancer patients in one family as familial breast cancer. Familial breast cancer accounts for 1/5 to 1/4 of all breast cancers, so does this mean that “if someone around me has cancer, I am in danger”? To clarify this issue, we need to distinguish whether we are related to the person who has the disease or not, as there is no blood relationship between husband and wife, colleague, aunt and uncle. According to the proximity of blood relations, we can distinguish relatives into first, second and third degree relatives. Parents, siblings and children are all first degree relatives, grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and grandchildren are all second degree relatives, while grandma’s siblings and children of aunts and uncles are third degree relatives. Obviously, the closer the blood relationship, the higher the risk of inheritance may be. It is important to note that family history should include relatives with ovarian and fallopian tube cancers, as studies have found that breast and ovarian cancers appear to share a common mechanism of inheritance I list the criteria for high genetic risk of breast cancer here for your reference: ≥2 breast cancer patients in the family ≥1 bilateral breast cancer patient in the family ≥1 ovarian cancer patient in the paternal or maternal line ≤1 ovarian cancer patient in the first or second degree relatives For example, the mother, grandmother and aunt of the famous American actress Angelina Jolie all had breast cancer. What are the countermeasures for women who find themselves in the high-risk group of hereditary breast cancer according to the above criteria? For the general public, if they have no symptoms, they can wait until they are 40 to 50 years old before undergoing breast cancer screening, while for women with higher genetic risk, the screening age should be advanced to 25 years old. For women with high genetic risk, screening should be done at the age of 25. The main methods of screening are medical palpation, ultrasound combined with mammography, and for those with a significant family history, breast MRI screening can be considered. In foreign countries, for people with higher genetic risk, genetic testing can be used to further clarify the risk of female breast cancer. For example, Jolie underwent genetic testing and was found to have a mutation in a breast cancer-related gene (BRCA1). However, there is no recognized testing technology available in China, so we are focusing on early detection of hereditary breast cancer by raising public awareness and enhancing screening. It is important to note that although genetic factors are indeed a high risk factor for breast cancer, it does not mean that the risk of breast cancer is elevated, but it does not mean that one will definitely develop breast cancer, so there is no need to overly panic because a relative has breast cancer.