Even if it's just helping her dad do chores around the house, Janel Hall knows the importance of spending time with family. She watched a grandmother and four aunts battle cancer.

So when doctors told her she was almost certain to get it, she considered some dramatic steps to avoid it.

"We looked at all the options. One of the options was a complete hysterectomy and, of course, a complete mastectomy," Hall said.

Genetic tests showed that Hall's odds of getting ovarian cancer were nearly 50 percent and her odds of getting breast cancer were nearly 90 percent.

Given her family history, that didn't surprise Hall. What did surprise her was that it was her father who passed along the risk.

"There's been a big myth that people can't inherit breast or ovarian cancer genes from their father. And, unfortunately, that's just not true," said Heather Hampel, a genetics counselor at Ohio State University's James Cancer Hospital.

Hampel says ovarian and breast cancer can be treated effectively if they are caught early. The best way to do that is to know your family history. But many women assume that those types of cancers can only come from their mother and don't realize they are at risk.

"If you can find out ahead of time that you have an increased risk of cancer, then you can do something about it. And this is a gift that older generations didn't have," said Hampel.