People at risk of developing hereditary cancer will now be forced to notify those around them. In case of refusal, it is the doctor who will notify the family by mail.
A big step forward in the fight against hereditary cancers! In fact, people with serious genetic abnormalities will no longer be able to keep this information to themselves. the decree of June 20, 2013 forces these people to inform their family members of the risk of hereditary cancer that hangs over them. The aim of this measure is to provide better care for these people at risk.
If the patient refuses to tell his relatives, it is now the doctor’s duty to warn the members of that person’s family. How? ‘Or’ What ? By inviting them by mail to consult a geneticist who will be able to give them more details and offer them the examinations he deems useful. The latter can contact the doctor who issued the letter for more information. However, for those who would already see the programmed end of medical confidentiality, it is not. The text specifies that the doctor is bound to respect the law, and that he can therefore neither reveal the identity of this person nor the genetic anomaly concerned.
This boost was necessary, according to the doctors. Because, a French study, presented on June 9, 2012 at the congress of the European Society of Human Genetics, revealed that families at risk of developing cancer did not perform the genetic tests they should.
Even though data from the National Cancer Institute show that the number of genetic tests to identify BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in breast cancer has increased by 3.5 between 2003 and 2011, “c ‘ is far from optimal, ”said Professor Pascal Pujol, oncogeneticist at the Montpellier University Hospital in an interview with why actor.
Today in France, only 15% of women with a BRCA1 / BRCA2 mutation know it. For Professor Pascal Pujol, doctors have a share of responsibility.
Listen to Prof. Pascal Pujol, oncogeneticist at Montpellier University Hospital : “Unlike the gynecologist, the gastroenterologist does not have the reflex to refer his patient, who has a strong family history in cancer, to an oncogenetics department.” (Interview broadcast on June 11, 2013)
In addition, the situation is much worse for the MMR mutations involved in Lynch syndrome. People who have it are at high risk of developing colorectal cancer or endometrial cancer. However, during the same period – between 2003 and 2011 – the number of tests only increased from 1,144 to 1,635.
Finally, according to Professor Pascal Pujol, it is urgent “to launch a major program to raise awareness of all the actors concerned, through medical training, information programs for patients and their families, public health campaigns and improvement of genetic counseling ”. The publication of this decree is therefore an encouraging first step.
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