How do you counsel a woman with a BRCA1 VUS with a high-risk personal history of breast cancer?
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
There is real harm to patients by ‘acting’ on the presence of VUS in BRCA1; the majority are reclassified as benign. For those who have access to genetics resources, it is very helpful to discuss these results with certified genetics counselors, and formal post-test counseling for patien...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
I consider a VUS a 'variant of unknown significance' that may be re-classified at some point in the future, and is more likely to be re-classified as benign than pathogenic, so I seldom make clinical recommendations based on that finding, but I would not ignore it altogether. If by a 'high-risk pers...
Comments
Medical Oncologist at Mercy Medical Center - Clinton In TNBC with BRCA with a variant of unknown signif...
Medical Oncologist at University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute I agree with Dr. @Sikov's comments and would like ...
Medical Oncologist at Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah @Saundra S. Buys - Thank you for the additional po...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Community Practice
With expanding use of germline testing, this question is becoming more relevant. While I generally agree with Dr. @Sikov's approach, I would like to add a few things.
There are multiple commercial labs (Ambry, Myriad, Invitae, GeneDx, etc) that offer germline testing, but most of them rely on exper...
Comments
Medical Oncologist at Altru Health Syst Cancer Center I just realized that I did not provide the link to...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
I greatly appreciate the additional comments and clarifications from Drs. @Buys and @Darbinyan, and the references provided. I completely agree with utilizing whatever expertise is available - whether locally or at a regional cancer center or thru the testing company - to help clinicians make the mo...