An oncologist began seeing a new patient – a woman who had previously had breast cancer, received genetic testing, and reported having a family history of cancer and Cowden syndrome. Based on this information, the oncologist referred her for genetic counseling. The...
A patient with Cowden syndrome developed a neuroendocrine tumor. Cowden syndrome is a hereditary condition that causes non-cancerous tumor-like growths in the skin and mucous membranes. It can also increase the risk for certain cancers, such as melanoma, breast,...
A woman in her 40s visited a general surgeon for non-cancer related reasons and was assessed for her hereditary risk for cancer. The patient did not have a personal history of cancer, but her mother, who is in her 60s, had recently been diagnosed with...
Paired tumor/germline testing is far from standard practice in cancer care, but some experts in the field are advocating that when patients have their tumors genomically profiled to determine precision medicine options, that is an opportunity to also evaluate them for...
In 2019, the field of personalized medicine continued to grow with the market launch of more than two dozen drugs targeting novel genomic alterations and numerous genetic tests to determine whether patients are at risk for serious diseases like cancer, and whether...