It's the holiday season.

And with Christmas and New Year's just a few weeks away.

Genetics counselors at the University of Kentucky's Marquee Cancer Center are encouraging folks to take advantage of the time you have with your family to discuss your family's family medical history.

They say genetics testing and counseling could lead to early detection of cancer and risk reduction.

We have more in tonight's look at medical news.

We are looking at genes or pieces of DNA that are known to cause an increased risk for developing cancer.

When someone has a mutation in one of these genes, in part of a genetic counseling session, we take a family history.

It's a crucial part of our conversation because ultimately, as a genetic counselor, you're looking for patterns.

You're looking to see, well, look, we've got three successive generations of people being diagnosed with the same or similar types of cancer or health concerns.

Right.

And that's raising this red flag of maybe there is something genetic going on in this person or in this family.

But in order for us to be as accurate as possible.

Right.

We need to take that family history.

You know, I wish that there was just one straightforward answer, one blanket answer that I could give about approaching relatives when it comes to their own medical history.

But I think having that candid conversation right of sitting down with them to say, hey, I want to know a little bit more, or I have developed a bigger interest into my own health and I want to make sure that I'm doing all of the right things to reduce the risk of a cardiac event or something or a cancer diagnosis or whatever it might be.

So I think that with this holiday season and everything, that when we are around our family members right now, we should have those fun conversations.

But it's also equally important that we take the time to speak with our relatives about their past and about any ongoing concerns so that we can kind of all help each other in the long run so that we can all live those happy and healthy lives.

Council to say If you learn of any new medical history over the holidays, you should inform your doctor.