Genetics can be cruel. Lawrence Ingrassia, a longtime journalist, learned that the hard way.
A genetic mutation that runs in his family predisposes those who carry the disease to developing all kinds of malignant tumors. Therefore, at the age of 69 years and 30 days, he became the longest surviving member of his family.
His brother had died the day before, his mother at the age of 42 and his two younger sisters at the ages of 32 and 24.
Five years ago, after his brother was diagnosed with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a rare condition, Ingrassia went on an odyssey to understand the disease and his family’s cancers.
At the 2024 STAT Summit in Boston, he told an audience what he had learned.