Cancer Testing Provides Insight

SALT LAKE CITY – Myriad Genetics Inc., a molecular diagnostic company committed to producing tests to assess patient risk-based in Salt Lake City, has reported that a new diagnostic test found 51 percent more patients with a higher risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer than did testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes alone.

The myRisk Hereditary Cancer test uses sequencing technology that evaluates 25 cancer-causing genes associated with breast, colorectal, ovarian, endometrial, pancreatic, prostate, gastric, and melanoma cancers. The test also allows physicians to increase the rate of detection and patients are able to better manage their risk of developing cancers they may be susceptible to. People who are worried that they may be predisposed to cancer or other diseases that are linked to it may want to look at DNA testing Tampa FL, or a center closer to them to see if they can have a test to confirm or deny their worries.

“Hereditary cancers are caused by mutations in many different genes and new genes linked to cancer have been recently identified. Testing only for one hereditary cancer syndrome may lead to missed mutations,” said Richard Wenstrup, M.D., chief medical officer of Myriad, in a statement. “The myRisk test evaluates 25 clinically actionable genes and significantly improves our ability to identify people at higher risk for hereditary cancer, which may lead to prevention or early detection with the ability to reduce cancer incidence and mortality.”

Approximately 1,951 patients were evaluated for the study that conducted the new myRisk test and the standard BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests. In the BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests, 182 mutation carriers were detected. However, the myRisk test found that 275 patients in the pool tested positive for a deleterious mutation. The accuracy of the test was found to be 99.9 percent accurate, according to the company. The findings from the recent test were presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

In total, Myriad Genetics has performed more than 5,000 clinical studies using the myRisk test. Previous data demonstrated that myRisk improved the detection of the eight major cancers by 61 percent with 99.99 percent accuracy. All 25 genes in the myRisk panel have a high to moderately high penetrance or lifetime risk of cancer for patients, according to Myriad Genetics.