HOW GENETIC TESTING CAN PREDICT CANCER RISK AND INCREASE TREATMENT SUCCESS

Eleven years ago, when Angelina Jolie announced that she had removed her breasts, due to the extremely high risk of developing cancer, the world was shocked: was the actress being too radical? What would have led one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood, a symbol of female beauty around the world, to opt for a double mastectomy based “solely” on a genetic test, and not on a diagnosis itself? Two years later, the actress would still have her ovaries and tubes removed. Once again, to guard against possible tumors, like the ones that had taken the lives of his mother and grandmother many years before.

With the advancement of research in the area, genetic tests are increasingly recommended by doctors for people with different profiles and susceptibilities. Not only for the prevention of hereditary cancers — in the case of those who have first-degree relatives or young family members, under the age of 50, with a history of the disease — but also to make the treatment of patients with already detected tumors more effective, explains the geneticist Salmo Raskin, Globo columnist and director of the Genetika Counseling Center and Laboratory.

— In terms of prevention, germline tests, which detect mutations in all cells of the body, must be carried out if there are cases in the nearest nucleus, mother, father, sister, aunt, child. Also when there are cases of the same group of cancer in the family, such as ovarian and breast, intestinal and stomach, or even when the relative was diagnosed very young. In fact, it’s not for everyone. 90% of the time cancer has nothing to do with heredity. Still, we have had more and more requests from people who have no history at all — explains the doctor.

Somatic exams, carried out on cancer cells, indicate which treatment may have a higher success rate, whether chemotherapy should be applied and the prognosis of the disease, by showing which type of gene is altered. — It is known that those with a mutation in the BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene (associated with tumors such as breast, ovarian and pancreatic tumors) are recommended for certain treatments and contraindicated for others. It is also common for people who have already had tumors to seek testing to find out if they are hereditary and protect their children. All cancer patients should discuss with their doctors whether they should undergo somatic exams – he concludes.

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