Advocacy group anecdotes present one-sided picture of genetic testing for breast cancer

Genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer risk is cheaper and easier than ever. But just because a test is available doesn’t mean everyone should get it.

That message didn’t come through in a recent series of patient anecdotes published on Women’s Health magazine’s web site:

• ‘I Had No Idea I Had an Increased Risk for Breast Cancer–Until My Dad Got Pancreatic Cancer’
• ‘How My Father’s Genetic Test Led Me to Make a Radical Decision About My Health’
• ‘I Wanted to Know Exactly How at Risk I Was for Cancer–So Here’s What I Did’.

Each of these stories featured a healthy young woman who decided to undergo testing for mutations associated with increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Two of the women had family histories of cancer that spurred their decisions, but the third had no known risk factors and was simply “curious” to learn about her genetics.

Because insurance wouldn’t pay for her test, the woman with a clean history paid $249 to Color Genomics for a test kit. “We all have access to this technology now...