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Doctors who recommend genetic testing for healthy relatives of cancer patients overwhelmingly favor unnecessary, costly tests in a survey done in Texas.
The survey, conducted by a Baylor College of Medicine geneticist, found that most doctors given hypothetical situations recommended both a test when one wasn't needed and choose the more comprehensive test when a simple one would have sufficed. This was the case regardless of the doctors' specialty or experience.
"This demonstrates that most physicians aren't informed how family-based genetic testing works," said Dr. Sharon Plon, director of the Baylor Cancer Genetics Clinic and the survey's principal investigator. "They need help choosing the best test for cancer patient relatives."
The comprehensive test costs $3,340 on average. The simple test costs $475.
Genetic testing of mutations in two genes that raise the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, began in 1995. It is drawing increasing interest because of new breast cancer treatment for women carrying harmful mutations of the genes.
Plon, whose survey appears this week in Genetics in Medicine, said she decided to...
The survey, conducted by a Baylor College of Medicine geneticist, found that most doctors given hypothetical situations recommended both a test when one wasn't needed and choose the more comprehensive test when a simple one would have sufficed. This was the case regardless of the doctors' specialty or experience.
"This demonstrates that most physicians aren't informed how family-based genetic testing works," said Dr. Sharon Plon, director of the Baylor Cancer Genetics Clinic and the survey's principal investigator. "They need help choosing the best test for cancer patient relatives."
The comprehensive test costs $3,340 on average. The simple test costs $475.
Genetic testing of mutations in two genes that raise the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, began in 1995. It is drawing increasing interest because of new breast cancer treatment for women carrying harmful mutations of the genes.
Plon, whose survey appears this week in Genetics in Medicine, said she decided to...