Thursday, April 16, 2015

Breast Cancer and Genetic Testing

Genetic mutations cause breast cancer in five to 10 percent of patients with the disease, so genetic testing can play a major role in the concern of genetic risk in women for other cancers, and their relatives risk for breast cancer.  Genetic testing looks for specific inherited changes or mutation in person’s chromosomes, genes or proteins.

In this new study from the Journal of Clinical Oncology, more than 1,500 breast cancer patients in Detroit and Los Angeles were surveyed about their interest in genetic testing.  However, almost half of these patients do not get information about genetic testing.  It was found that only about 35 percent had a strong interest, and 43 percent of these women with a strong interest did not discuss the topic of genetic testing with a medical professional. 


Many of the patients that said they were interested in genetic testing, were at a low risk for such a mutation, and their doctors would not generally consider this type of testing.  It was also found that breast cancer patients with a genetic mutation were at a higher risk of developing a second breast cancer, and may consider a more aggressive treatment, preventive measure, or additional screening based on their increased risk.

With this new information, researchers hope that addressing genetic risk determined by genetic testing patients can be better informed of their true risk of cancer returning or developing a new cancer.  As more people become aware of genetic testing and take advantage of this, it could lead to less worry and earlier detection of cancer and the possible risk a patient could potentially have. 



Original Article: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/04/06/breast-cancer-patients-concerned-about-genetic-risk-survey-finds
Additional Article: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/causes-prevention/genetics/genetic-testing-fact-sheet

1 comment:

  1. I feel this information is so important. It's really crazy to think that just in being genetically tested and knowing where you stand could potentially save your life, where the patient otherwise would have died. Having a close family member diagnosed with breast cancer, this article hit close to home and I would love to see genetic testing become more routine.

    ReplyDelete