Li-Fraumeni syndrome: Lawrence Ingrassia’s life as the lone survivor of a ‘fatal inheritance’

By RNZ When he was 15, cancer took journalist Lawrence Ingrassia’s mother. Later, it came for his three siblings and nephew. For decades, the American family put their propensity for developing the illness down to the delayed effects of ingesting chemicals brought home on the clothes of their father, a research chemist.

Then, nine years ago, Ingrassia and his brother discovered that theory was false, and a rare genetic disorder was to blame. In the new book A Fatal Inheritance , Ingrassia tells his family story and investigates Li-Fraumeni syndrome - the cancer-causing gene mutation that he was alone in not inheriting from his mother..