Open-access genetic screening for hereditary breast cancer is feasible, effective -- ScienceDaily

Open-access genetic screening for hereditary breast cancer is feasible, effective -- ScienceDaily

Open-access genetic screening for hereditary breast cancer is feasible, effective

Date:

May 27, 2017

Source:

European Society of Human Genetics

Summary:

Offering open-access genetic testing for the inherited breast cancers BRCA1 and 2 to Ashkenazi women unaffected by cancer, regardless of their family history, enables the identification of carriers who would otherwise have been missed, a new study demonstrates.

Ashkenazi Jewish women are known to have a predisposition to the inherited breast cancers BRCA1 and BRCA2, but currently genetic testing in this group is limited to women affected by breast and ovarian cancers and those who are unaffected but have a family history of the disease.