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Transcript
Katherine Banwell:
What is hereditary or genetic testing, and where does it fit into the overall detection?
Dr. Heidi Gray:
Yeah, so, we know that a portion of all types of cancers may have a hereditary component or a genetic component, in which there is a gene or a mutation in a gene that’s passed along in families that puts that individual at risk of developing a cancer more so than the general population. And it’s important to note that when patients do have a genetic mutation or a risk of cancer, it’s not 100 percent. It’s not that, for the most part, that it just increases your risk of getting that cancer.
And so, in particular, for gynecologic cancers, the most commonly known about genetic risk are in ovarian cancer. So, there’s a couple of very important mutations called BRCA1 and BRCA2, that are found that, in patients or families that have these mutations, they have markedly increased risk of both breast and ovarian cancers.
And so, it’s very important to detect those individuals and screen patients for this genetic risk, because we can intervene both with improved or increased screening and potentially surgical intervention to prevent either of these cancers from happening.
Katherine Banwell:
Well, how can a patient find out if they have a genetic mutation?
Dr. Heidi Gray:
Yes, that’s really important. So, there are a variety of different genetic tests available. It usually starts with kind of having a conversation with your provider or clinician about your own concerns or your risks or genetic risks. And a lot of that has to do with taking a very thorough family history, because we know that in families that have inherited risks for cancer – genetic risks – you see increased risk of cancers in those families. Now, sometimes people have smaller families, sometimes folks are adopted, or don’t know their family history.
So, sometimes the family history isn’t quite as informative. And some of us out there in the cancer community actually kind of really believe that probably all patients deserve some cancer screening or testing. It used to be extraordinarily expensive to do genetic testing and screening, which is typically a blood test. I mean, it was thousands and thousands of dollars. Actually, there are now commercially available tests that you can send in a cheek swab into some of these companies that do very, very intense genetic testing and screening. And honestly, I advocate for patients to consider that if they have any risk or worry. But it’s also important to kind of talk to your providers about.