Genetic Testing – Would You? Should You?
Would you want to test your DNA to predict whether you would one day develop cancer, Alzheimer’s or other diseases? Consumers may soon be able to purchase genetic testing kits that might provide this information. Or might not.
Smart patients should be seeing red flags and protecting their wallets.
Some background: Certain genetic tests can give us useful information. DNA testing used for law enforcement or legal purposes helps solve crimes or establish parenthood. Other genetic tests can ascertain a man and woman’s likelihood of giving birth to a baby with a genetic abnormality. BRCA gene tests help women determine their risk for breast or ovarian cancer. These tests are well worth the cost and efforts when indicated.
Now, new tests are becoming available to determine risk for Alzheimer’s, lung cancer and others. But smart patients need to ask additional questions about both the cost and these tests’ dubious outcomes.
First – how reliable are the results? Genetic tests offered directly to consumers may not be so credible. There is no entity, like the FDA, that oversees the development or manufacture of these tests, and there is no objective, scientific group determining their accuracy. Suppose your genes suggest a 60 percent chance of developing Disease X. How will you ever know if it was right or wrong?
Even if the results are someday deemed to be highly accurate, they won’t be useful unless you know what your possible next steps might be. A genetic test could tell you that you have a 60 percent chance of developing Alzheimer’s Disease. But what will you do next? Eat healthier foods? Stop smoking? Get more exercise? Do a crossword puzzle every day? Those steps are healthy regardless of what your genes tell you. Plus you’ll have that dread-disease apparition hanging over you for the rest of your life.
Bottom line for smart patients – investing in genetic testing that produces usable results may well be worth it. But spending money and emotional capital on this form of testing for questionable results that don’t suggest useful next steps anyway, can end up being costly to both your wallet and your psyche.
Making decisions about your desire for genetic testing might better be based on peace-of-mind. For most of us, today, that will mean making healthy choices and spending our money elsewhere, too.
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Learn more about genetic testing and how it will affect the future of medical care. | 
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Trisha Torrey
is the author of
You Bet Your Life!
The 10 Mistakes
Every Patient Makes
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Health Care You Deserve)
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exposé of the problems that
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