When Ryan was diagnosed with Fanconi anemia (FA) at 18 months old, it was devastating. There were so many unknowns, and trying to gather information online was both frustrating and scary. When we found the Fanconi Cancer Foundation (FCF) and...
Fanconi Anemia Explained
What Is FA?
FA is a genetic disease caused by mutations in any of the known 23 genes (including genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2) that play a role in the FA DNA repair pathway. FA is considered a cancer-predisposition or cancer-susceptibility disease. Decades of research have revealed that faulty DNA repair causes FA, and individuals with FA are much more likely to develop cancer at a young age.