Evolution of Genetic Testing
December 18, 2020Evolution of Genetic Testing
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Information
Smilow Cancer Hospital’s Dr. Xavier Llor discusses the evolution of genetic testing over the last 10-15 years and current testing that is available, as part of the new web module from HealthExperiencesUSA called ‘Cancer Risk that Runs in Families.’
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- 00:00The evolution has been extraordinary
- 00:02and just over the past 1050 years.
- 00:05So we started from the inexpensive
- 00:07test where we were guessing what the
- 00:09gene could be with the defective gene
- 00:12could be according to what the patient
- 00:14and their families were showing,
- 00:16and then if that test was negative,
- 00:19we were considering about going to a
- 00:21different test to check for another gene
- 00:24that could be responsible for that process.
- 00:27So that was expensive and often
- 00:29time consuming because we're
- 00:30not finding the mediations.
- 00:32And the initial tribe.
- 00:34So this has evolved to having more
- 00:36jeans that are responsible for
- 00:38diseases will learn from and those
- 00:41genes package within tests are now
- 00:44encompass a number of genes that
- 00:46are being tested at the same time
- 00:49we call multi gene panel tests.
- 00:51These are now the ones that
- 00:54we are commonly using.
- 00:55They allow us to really test
- 00:58for different genes that can be
- 01:00responsible for similar cancer.
- 01:02Susceptibilities and therefore
- 01:03they will let us to be much more
- 01:07efficient in terms of diagnostics,
- 01:09so that really has revolutionized
- 01:11how we do genetic testing.
- 01:13An it has it has allowed us to really
- 01:16be much more efficient when there,
- 01:19when it comes to genetic testing,
- 01:22so changes are happening there
- 01:23happening fast and in the capacity
- 01:26of these panels to incorporate knew
- 01:28genetic defects that we're learning
- 01:31every day that are responsible.
- 01:33For cancer susceptibility are easily
- 01:35incorporated and and that also let us
- 01:38re check on patients who were tested
- 01:40several years ago and some of those
- 01:43jeans were not discovered by that time yet.
- 01:46So we can go back to this.
- 01:48Individuals who tested negative
- 01:50at that time and double check see
- 01:53those new mutations that have been
- 01:55discovered are actually the ones that
- 01:58are causing their cancer predisposition.
- 02:00And so again,
- 02:01I think that whoever got information
- 02:03two years ago,
- 02:04it's already different nowadays
- 02:05and probably in two years is
- 02:07still going to be different.
- 02:09Therefore it's an active field that
- 02:11we really need to make sure that
- 02:13our patients do understand that
- 02:15our knowledge keeps evolving and we
- 02:16need to really keep in touch with
- 02:19our patients so they can actually
- 02:21benefit from their new knowledge.