Researchers explore genetic testing to identify people at high risk for preventable disease
Published on March 8, 2013 at 12:04 AM·No Comments In ten years time, routine preventive health care for adults may include genetic testing alongside the now familiar tests for cholesterol levels, mammography and colonoscopy. As genomic testing prepares to enter the realm of general medical care, an interdisciplinary team of researchers is suggesting in a commentary in the May 2013 issue of Genetics in Medicine, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), that now is the time to explore genetic testing to identify people at high risk for carefully selected, preventable disease.
The technology is available, and the price is coming down so rapidly that it will soon be possible and practical to offer a carefully selected panel of genetic tests that could avert disastrous health consequences in people at high risk for serious life-threatening diseases, according to James P. Evans, MD, Ph.D, Bryson Distinguished Professor of Genetics & Medicine, at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and Editor-in-Chief of Genetics in Medicine. The commentary authors, experts in both genetics and public health, believe it is time to start looking at genetic testing through the lens of disease prevention. There are enough genetic conditions that are both preventable and strongly predispose people to specific cancers or to a catastrophic vascular event that it is sensible to try to identify those people early so they can seek preventive care, the researchers argue.
"Added together, the number of people who are walking around, who unknown to them, have mutations that greatly predispose to serious but eminently preventable disease, comes out to roughly 1 percent of the population," says Evans.
The technology is available, and the price is coming down so rapidly that it will soon be possible and practical to offer a carefully selected panel of genetic tests that could avert disastrous health consequences in people at high risk for serious life-threatening diseases, according to James P. Evans, MD, Ph.D, Bryson Distinguished Professor of Genetics & Medicine, at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and Editor-in-Chief of Genetics in Medicine. The commentary authors, experts in both genetics and public health, believe it is time to start looking at genetic testing through the lens of disease prevention. There are enough genetic conditions that are both preventable and strongly predispose people to specific cancers or to a catastrophic vascular event that it is sensible to try to identify those people early so they can seek preventive care, the researchers argue.
"Added together, the number of people who are walking around, who unknown to them, have mutations that greatly predispose to serious but eminently preventable disease, comes out to roughly 1 percent of the population," says Evans.
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