My friend, medical ethicist Art Caplan,
has published a provocative piece that opens this way:
Fear of breast cancer has created a tempting market for companies to sell genetic testing directly to consumers. The disease kills 40,000 people a year in the U.S., with an estimated 212,920 new cases diagnosed in 2007, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s no wonder women would want a reliable gauge of their risk. However, American women should be aware that genetic tests for breast cancer are more hype than real hope.
The column comes after an Icelandic company said this week that it would start selling tests for less than $2,000 that would help women understand the breast cancer risks they face based on their DNA.
Caplan says:
Contrary to the marketing messages, only women who have a strong family history of breast cancer -- two or more parents, grandparents or siblings who have developed the disease -- need to talk to their doctor or a genetic counselor about the value of any form of genetic testing.
Here are the Web sites for the two companies that Caplan mentions by name.
The National Cancer Institute Web siteThe Mayo Clinic article on genetic testing for breast cancer risk says:
Out of the 212,920 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the United States last year, only 10,000 to 20,000 cases were inherited -- and only a fraction of those were linked to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. This small number means that for the majority of women who develop breast cancer, the cancer occurs sporadically and isn't caused by hereditary factors.
The picture changes if two or more of your first-degree relatives -- parents, siblings, children, or one of each -- have developed breast or ovarian cancer. In that case, genetic counseling is recommended.
