Recommendations For Cancer Prevention

Recommendations For Cancer Prevention.
Nine of 10 women do not indigence and should not meet with genetic testing to see if they are at risk for breast or ovarian cancer, an influential panel of trim experts announced Monday. The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) reaffirmed its untimely recommendation from 2005 that only a limited number of women with a family history of chest cancer be tested for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that can increase their cancer risk. Even then, these women should talk over the test with both their family doctor and a genetic counselor before proceeding with the BRCA genetic test, the panel said.

And "Not all males and females who have positive family histories should be tested. It's not at all bovine or straightforward," said Dr Virginia Moyer, the task force's chair. Interest in the midst women in genetic testing for breast cancer has greatly increased, comparatively due to Hollywood film star Angelina Jolie's announcement in May that she underwent a double mastectomy because she carried the BRCA1 mutation. A Harris Interactive/HealthDay figures conducted a few months after Jolie's disclosure found as many as 6 million women in the United States planned to get medical advice about having a precautionary mastectomy or ovary removal because of the actress' personal decision.

On average, mutations of the BRCA genes can addition breast cancer risk between 45 percent to 65 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. The pickle is that there are myriad mutations of the BRCA gene. Doctors have identified some mutations that improve breast cancer risk, but there are many more BRCA mutations where the increased risk is either broken-hearted or as yet unknown. "The test is not something that comes back positive or negative.

The test comes back a strong lot of different ways, and that has to be interpreted. There are a variety of mutations. Often you get what appears to be a negative evaluate but we call it an 'uninformative' negative because it just doesn't tell you anything. A woman would walk away from that with no idea, but worried, and that's not helpful".

Earlier this month, the genetic testing business 23andMe announced it's no longer gift health information with its home-based kit service after the US Food and Drug Administration warned that the check is a medical device that requires government approval. The unfledged task force recommendations will be published online Dec 23, 2013 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The work force's judgment carries heavy weight within the health custody industry.

For instance, the federal government's list of preventive health care measures that insurers must specify free of charge under the Affordable Care Act is based on USPSTF recommendations. According to the struggle force, about 90 percent of American women do not have a family history associated with an increased endanger for BRCA mutations, and even fewer will have a mutation that could lead to breast cancer. "Only two or three women in a thousand have these mutations.

Doing this is not active to prevent most breast cancers". Medical experts are troubled that many women will undergo unnecessary surgery following an unclear genetic test, having their breasts or ovaries needlessly removed to bar a cancer risk they never had. "All of us have a copy of the BRCA gene, and some of us have a mutation," said Dr Otis Brawley, ringleader medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

And "Some mutations growth the risk of breast cancer by up to 85 percent, others by 40 percent, others by 10 percent. But the ball and chain who now knows she has a mutation is very frightened and very upset, and no extent of explaining that it's of little to no significance will help," Brawley continued. Both Brawley and Moyer emphasized that any lassie interested in BRCA screening should meet with a certified genetic counselor before proceeding.

The counselor will imbibe a very detailed clinical history of the patient and assess whether they would aid from the test. "The key here is that women who think they might want the test should talk to a genetic counselor, and that genetic counselor should resolve the risks and benefits of the test and help them make the decision. A doctor shouldn't necessarily be the person doing it.

It should be a certified genetic counselor. Most doctors are not skilled at doing this". The chore force is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in enjoining and evidence-based medicine nico not in common ownership. It routinely issues recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services and remedy medications.