Are acquired gene changes passed to children?

No. Acquired gene changes, also called somatic changes, happen during a person's life and are found only in the cells where they occurred — such as tumor cells. Because they are not present in egg or sperm cells, they cannot be passed to children.

The National Cancer Institute explains that inherited changes are different. An inherited change can be passed on because it is present in a parent's egg or sperm cell, and so it ends up in every cell of the child's body.

This is why the changes found in a tumor generally do not carry risk for relatives, while an inherited change can. Occasionally a tumor test uncovers a change that a person was actually born with; a separate inherited-risk test can confirm whether it is truly inherited, which is what would matter for family members.