Genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer australia

The information on this page talks about the process involved in genetic counseling and testing for cancer risk. Several steps are taken before actual testing is done. The first step in genetic testing is to find out how likely you are to develop a certain disease. This risk is based on things like your medical history and the pattern of disease in your family your family history. Your risk may be looked at by a doctor, nurse, or trained genetic counselor. Your family history as far back as possible and up to the present day will be reviewed in depth.

There are more than 35 million women with a history of breast cancer in the U. Considering some women inherit gene mutations that can increase their risk of a diagnosis, genetic testing, which uses DNA to identify harmful mutations of the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes as well as other high-risk gene mutations, can be an invaluable resource for those who meet the testing criteria. That gauge includes those with a personal history of certain types of cancers, those who experience an early age onset of certain types of cancer this is generally defined as 50 and younger and those with a combination of certain types of cancers such as breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic within their family history. And your results may not just be beneficial to you.

Back to Health A to Z. We all carry certain genes that are normally protective against cancer. These genes correct any DNA damage that naturally happens when cells divide. BRCA genes are not the only cancer risk genes.

Purpose: The identification of carriers of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer HBOC gene variants through family cancer history alone is suboptimal, and most population-based genetic testing studies have been limited to founder mutations in high-risk populations. Here, we determine the clinical utility of identifying actionable variants in a healthy cohort of women. Methods: Germline DNA from a subset of healthy Australian women participating in the lifepool project was screened using an gene custom sequencing panel.