Cancer Testing In Women

Fox News recently reported that genetic testing for cancer in women is largely being misused. According to Jaqueline Miller at the Center for Disease Control and Preventioin released data collected from over 1900 physicians regarding genetic testing for women.

The 1900 doctors that were surveyed admitting sending 65 % of their female patients for genetic testing for Ovarian cancer when they did not show signs of being at risk while sending only 30% of their patients that were at risk.

This is an astounding number of patients especially when you consider that Ovarian cancer is the least likely cancer a woman will get. Only 1 in 75 women develop Ovarian cancer.

Genetic testing is very costly to the tune of around $3500 per test. The patient share is usually around $100 but someone is paying that balance out. Ms. Miller stated in the report that genetic testing for cancer in women is expensive and for a lot of women going through the test alone is stressful, there is a lot of women being tested when it is unnecessary.

On average 1 in 300 women will test positive for the BRCA gene mutation that identifies both breast and ovarian cancer risk in women. That is a pretty low percentage of the population that this testing is effective for. Testing positive for the BRCA gene also only tells the women that sometime before the age of 85 she has a higher than average chance of developing these two types of cancer.

The Bottom Line

Before you sign on for genetic testing think long and hard about whether you want to spend the money and what you will do with the information if you test positive for the mutation.

You health insurance company can partner with you in making your decision.

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