Having an understanding of the inherited genetic components that can lead to cancer formation can be of great use to clinicians; it can explain why a patient may have developed a cancer, suggest a cancer that they may be at risk of developing, and identify potential therapeutic targets. In this interview, recorded at the European School of Hematology (ESH) International Conference on Acute Myeloid Leukaemia 2017 in Estoril, Portugal, Jane Churpek, MD, of the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, highlights recent findings from her group linking hematologic malignancies with genetic elements, and suggests that there may be many other tumor types with genetic components that need to be researched further.