Personalized genetics test customers rarely change their behavior to lower cancer risks

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Despite being on the market for nearly a decade, direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing continues to be controversial among experts and raises concerns among health care providers and regulatory agencies.

The NIH-funded “Impact of Personal Genomics (PGen) Study” addresses these concerns by empirically measuring the perceptions and tracking the behaviors of individuals who have received DTC genetic testing….

In the latest analysis, [Stacy W. Gray, MD, City of Hope National Medical Center,] and colleagues specifically looked at personal genomic testing for cancer risk, and found that 12-24 percent of individuals received “elevated” cancer risk estimates for prostate, breast and colon cancer. Despite learning they were at increased risk for these common cancers, most customers did not report changing their diet, exercise, supplement use, advanced care planning or cancer screening in comparison to the customers who learned they were at average or lower risk.

“These results suggest that people are not over-reacting to very modest cancer risks in DTC genetic testing….” said Robert C. Green, director of the Genomes2People Research Program.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Studies probe value and impact of direct-to-consumer genetic testing

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