Dr. Mark A. Lewis' inclination for helping others was passed down to him through the generations before him, at least metaphorically speaking. His father was a caregiver of sorts - a theologian whose healing line of work was deeply informative to the young Lewis. More literally, his father passed him down a genetic mutation that predisposed him to cancer. His father died of lung cancer, the result not of smoking, but of the rare mutation that underlies familial tumor syndrome, in the Lewises' case, Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN 1).

The Atlantic by Alice Walton

Tags: Cancer, Dr. Mark A. Lewis, genetic mutation, Genomics, Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia, The Atlantic