This week, Further investigation (broadcast Thursday, November 15) was interested in the latest health trend: examining its genes and origins via DNA tests to be done at home, for 100 euros. Very fashionable around the world, they are banned in France. But, are these tests reliable? The show tells the story of this American, Elisha, who had her breasts, uterus and ovaries removed after such a test.
BRCA1 gene, risk of breast cancer
She tells the show that her mother died of cancer. She gave in to curiosity about DNA testing to find out if she carried the BRCA1 gene, which dramatically increases the risk of one day developing breast or ovarian cancer. The result was positive …
This occurs in a particular context: in the United States, DNA tests are all the rage. And since 2013, when Angelina Jolie made the headlines when she lost her 56-year-old mother to breast cancer. After having performed a genetic test herself, she learned that she was a carrier and had a mastectomy, which is the removal of both breasts. Moreover, the number of operations of this type tripled between 2006 and 2016.
False negative
This is what happened to this 36-year-old American woman. After a test, without any verification by a recognized medical protocol, she decided to follow her doctor’s advice on the sole basis of the result. To know ? Have an operation to remove her uterus and both breasts. A way, she explains in the documentary, not to go through the hell of chemotherapy and radiotherapy experienced by her mother.
But a few months after having undergone this heavy operation, another doctor encouraged him to carry out a verification of this DNA test. The result ? She is “clearly negative“to the BRCA1 which led it to be done”mutilate“as she explains in the show. And no way to go back … The show denounces unreliable tests increasingly popular in the United States.
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