Genetic testing of women with breast cancer may be cost-effective

Testing all women with breast cancer for underlying genetic factors — regardless of family history — may be cost-effective. Only 30% of patients currently get tested, and regular testing could help identify factors that could also help relatives. Data from nearly 12,000 women with breast cancer was used to simulate one of two situations: Testing for three different breast cancer genes regardless of family history or clinical criteria, or testing only if they had a history and met certain criteria. Multigene testing regardless of background was cost-effective for nearly all health care simulations in the U.K. and for about two-thirds of simulations in the U.S. Moreover, the simulations revealed that, in one year, such a test could prevent more than 2,100 breast and ovarian cancer cases in the U.K., and nearly 10,000 cases in the U.S.