日前发表于美国国立癌症研究所学报（Journal of the National Cancer Institute）的文献提示，调查显示不少美国人不能够完整地回忆或报告他或她的家人既往患病史，提示仍需要努力完善这方面的资料或建档。因为详尽地收集每个人的家族患病史有利于家庭成员们之疾病防治和/或风险预测。更多资讯，请参阅原文：

Family Medical History Murky for Many

Efforts needed to improve the accuracy of family cancer history reporting, researchers find

FRIDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors rely on a patient's knowledge of his or her family medical history in assessing cancer risk, but these recollections are not always dependable.

A new study published online May 11 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reveals that patients' accuracy in reporting the cancer diagnoses of their relatives was low to moderate.

Researchers surveyed about 1,000 people about cancer diagnoses in nearly 21,000 first-degree relatives (parents, siblings and children) as well as second-degree relatives (grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews).

Researchers then confirmed the cancer histories of about 2,600 of those relatives for four of the most common adult malignancies -- breast, colorectal, prostate and lung -- using medical records, state cancer registries, death certificates and interviews with the relatives or their proxies.

About 61 percent of patients were accurate about their family history of breast cancer; 60 percent recalled family lung cancer history correctly; 27 percent were right about their relatives' history of colorectal cancer and 32 percent knew who in their family had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

In contrast, patient reports on relatives who didn't get cancer were highly accurate.

Not surprisingly, knowledge of the cancer histories of first-degree relatives were more accurate than for second-degree relatives.

The researchers concluded that the accuracy of family cancer history reporting must be improved. "If we want to be able to appropriately integrate family history into personalized clinical care, studying systematic ways to enhance family history ascertainment should be a research priority," said the study's authors in a news release.

SOURCE: U.S. National Cancer Institute, news release, May 11, 2011