Identifying patients with hereditary cancer is critical, so that you can gather additional information for personalized risk counseling and management planning. The first step is to use personal and family history information to find out which patients may be candidates for genetic testing. With tools like our hereditary cancer questionnaire, this can be relatively easy to integrate into your clinic. The next step is to decide which test, of the countless available options, is best for your patient and their family. Sometimes, this choice can be difficult; however, one approach to consider is using a comprehensive test, like CancerNext.
Here are 3 key facts about CancerNext:
- Comprehensive: CancerNext analyzes 34 genes associated with increased risks for common cancers including breast, ovarian, colorectal, uterine, pancreatic, prostate, melanoma, and stomach. Using a comprehensive test can increase your chance of identifying patients with hereditary cancer and decrease your chance of missing an important, clinically actionable mutation. Ambry collaborated in a study of >34,000 individuals revealing that 22% of patients identified to have Lynch syndrome only met NCCN® guidelines for BRCA1/2 genetic testing, so these patients may have been missed by a less comprehensive test.
- Appropriate for most patients with a personal and/or family history concerning for hereditary cancer, such as those with one or more of the following:
- Early onset cancer diagnosis (<50 years) particularly for breast, colorectal, and uterine cancer
- Rare cancers such as male breast, ovarian, or metastatic prostate cancer
- Multiple primary cancers diagnosed in one individual
- Multiple cancers, usually >3, on the same side of the family
- Clinically actionable: The majority of genes on CancerNext have published medical management guidelines. In fact, >96% of positive results from CancerNext are clinically actionable (Panos et al, NSGC 2017). With an average turnaround time of 14 days, this test gives you results quickly allowing you to better guide treatment and management for your patients.
Learn more about CancerNext here or request additional information from your local Genetic Specialist.
