Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise TAMPA, Fla. (June 13, 2014) A new Moffitt Cancer Center study published Thursday in Genetics in Medicine shows that counseling from a genetic health care provider before genetic testing educates patients and may help reduce unnecessary procedures. Up to 10 percent of cancers are inherited, meaning a person was born with an abnormal gene that increases their risk for cancer. Pre-test genetic counseling in which a health care provider takes a thorough family history and discusses the potential risks and benefits of genetic testing is standard of care as recommended by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and National Society of Genetic Counselors, said Tuya Pal, M.D., a board-certified geneticist at Moffitt and senior author of the paper. In the Moffitt study, researchers surveyed 473 patients who had genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, which are associated with an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Among study participants who saw a board-certified geneticist or genetic counselor, almost all recalled having a pre-test discussion, compared to only 59 percent of those who did not. These findings suggest large differences in quality of care across providers who order testing. The researchers … Continue reading →

New cohort studies presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) have shown the amino acid valine at position 11 of HLA-DRB1 gene to be the strongest independent genetic determinant of radiological damage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).1 In addition, positions 71 and 74 were found to represent independent predictors, with the three positions together: 11, 71 and 74 strongly associated with disease outcomes.1 According to lead author Dr Sebastien Viatte of the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Genetics and Genomics, Manchester, United Kingdom, "this major advance in genetics might allow stratification of RA patients at the onset of their disease to identify those at risk of joint damage and early death, and also those who are more likely to respond to anti-TNF biological therapy." RA is a common chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease characterised by inflammation of synovial joints leading to damage to the inside of the joint and surrounding soft tissues. The cause of RA is largely unknown, but both environmental factors and genetic susceptibility appear to be involved. Although the prevalence of RA is relatively constant in most countries at between 0.5-1.0 percent, the higher occurrence among native American-Indian populations and very low occurrence in … Continue reading →