The Breast Center Offers Testing to Detect Genetic Mutation
When you come to The Breast Center there is a new component that will be included in your care. You will be given a tablet and asked some questions about your personal and family health history. Your answers to these questions will determine if you qualify for genetic testing. Since everyone does not need genetic testing, this determination is made based upon criteria from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. From the answers to these questions, we will know whether you qualify for genetic testing.Personal and family history are some things that qualify you for genetic testing.
Personal History of:
- Breast cancer at any age
- Ovarian cancer at age
- Metastatic prostate cancer at any age
- Pancreatic cancer at any age
- Colorectal cancer before 65
- Endometrial cancer before age 65
Family history of:
- Breast cancer in a first- or second-degree relative younger than the age of 50
- Two breast cancers in any one relative at any age
- Three or more breast cancers in relatives on the same side of the family at any age
- Ovarian, metastatic prostrate, pancreatic cancer or male breast cancer at any age
- Colon, rectal, or uterine/endometrial cancer diagnosed younger than the age of 50Any first-degree relative with a genetic mutation identified
Only about 10 percent of patients diagnosed with breast cancer have a genetic mutation. However, if you are found to have a breast cancer gene mutation, your risk of developing breast cancer sometime in your lifetime is exponentially higher than other patients without a genetic mutation.
If you are found to qualify for genetic testing, you will watch an educational video and speak to a genetic counselor on the telephone. After you complete the education and speak with the genetic counselor, we will then visit with you to answer any further questions. If you choose to have genetic testing, we will draw your blood while you are still at the center and send the genetic testing to be done.
If there will be any out-of-pocket expenses, you will be notified before the test is run at the laboratory. There is also financial assistance available through Myriad, the company providing the genetic testing.
The results will be returned to The Breast Center in a few weeks. You will be called with the results or asked to return to The Breast Center if there is need for further preventative testing that needs to be discussed personally. If you need to be followed by a physician for these recommendations, we will facilitate that referral.
Our main goals at The Breast Center are, first and foremost, to detect breast cancer as early as possible and secondly, to provide personalized care. Genetic testing is our latest avenue to provide personalized care.
Having a high-risk breast center here in Midland assures you once again that “there’s no place like home” when it comes to your breast imaging and breast care needs.
Jenifer Dumire is a nurse navigator at the Breast Center.