Genetic Testing for All Women? Not a Solution to the Breast Cancer Epidemic

The perseverance and scientific innovation of Dr. Mary Claire King, the geneticist whose efforts to identify the BRCA genes were initially scoffed at by her peers, cannot be underestimated or underappreciated. Her drive and desire to find better tools to address the breast cancer epidemic are shared by activists, researchers, geneticist, and patients alike. But her new recommendation, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association -- that all women in the United States over age 30 be screened for BRCA mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancer -- fails as a matter of public health to recognize the significant limitations, and harms, of mass genetic testing in the current health care environment.

In proposing that genetic testing for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes become routine for all women over age 30, Dr. King focuses only on what she sees as the potential benefit, of identifying women with genetic mutations that increase their risk of cancer, and minimizes the harms that result from exposing all 105,000,000 women age 30 and over in the U.S. to genetic testing without access...