Tens of thousands of cancer patients and those with a family history of the disease already undergo genetic testing on the NHS every year. Those known to have a higher risk profile will be added to the new register.
They will be given tailored information about what they can do to lower their chance of developing cancer or detect it early.
The NHS said it was building the register as part of a 10-year plan to improve prevention and treatment of cancer.
NHS England’s national cancer director told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “the first time any health care system has brought together all the information about all the genetic risk into a single place.”
Prof Peter Johnson said it pulled together the tests patients were already offered to check their cancer susceptibility into a single register, “so that we can contact people to offer them screening and in some cases preventative treatment”.
This will allow practitioners to “keep tabs on people” and offer them new tests and treatments as they are rolled out, he added, while stressing it would be “incredibly confidential and secure”.
Johnson said that while it could be “very daunting” for people to find out their cancer risk, it meant the disease could be picked up as early as possible.
The NHS National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Register follows a similar database for Lynch syndrome which saw more than 12,000 people offered routine preventative screening after they were identified as being at higher risk, according to the NHS.
Charlie Grinstead, a 32-year-old diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2020, said his Lynch syndrome diagnosis gave him access to immunotherapy after unsuccessful chemotherapy – and proved to be the “the key to my recovery”.