SAN ANTONIO – Doctors at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center are awaiting the reaction to news that several companies will be dropping the price of breast cancer gene testing dramatically, making the BRCA 1 and 2 test accessible to many who could not afford it.
Dr. Virginia Kaklamani, CTRC chief of breast oncology said, "This really opens up this genetic testing for every single person that's out there, and that's mostly women."
She expects more women will take advantage of the test because of the price drop, which is due in part to a Supreme Court ruling that allows more companies to provide testing, as well as a new saliva test that is much less expensive to perform.
DCIS cancer survivor Laura Johnston had a lumpectomy and a hysterectomy nine years ago because of hormonal issues. But when her mother developed breast cancer a year ago, she felt it was time to find out the whole story.
Johnston said, “I do have the two mutations instead of the one. So that's when we went ahead with the procedure to have the double mastectomy."
Now other family members are faced with the test, but it will probably cost them less.
Johnston’s test cost her $400 out-of-pocket with insurance. It will be almost half that in the future, with companies now offering BRCA gene testing for $200 to $300. That’s compared to as much as $5,000 that it cost patients over the years.
Still, Kaklamani said this shouldn’t be a cue for all women to get this gene test.
"BRCA 1 and 2 are genes we have studied for a long time. But there is a 1-2 percent chance of us finding changes in those genes, mutations, that we don't know what to do with. They are called mutations of unknown significance," she explained.
That percentage of vague findings is greater in populations such as San Antonio's that have a larger Hispanic population. For those who get a result of “maybe,” there are other tests that would be better to determine cancer risk, and the new, cheaper version would not be adequate or reassuring.
Johnston sees another drawback for the curious. She described a situation where her young niece wants to know her gene risk, but perhaps should wait for other family members to be tested to avoid any insurance repercussions later.
"I really don't think it's a good idea to do something like that without having a doctor's opinion. I had three different, separate doctors' opinion," she added.
Insurance doesn’t cover the test for all women who run a risk, and there are questions as to whether new, less expensive testing will lead to too many “well” women getting the test needlessly.
Throughout all the discussion, however, there is no debate about some other good news on the gene testing front. Just this week, the nation’s two largest clinical laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, will be joining with French researchers to pool their results to interpret the mutations uncovered. It’s called BRCA Share, an effort that may lead to many more findings in the fight to prevent breast cancer in women.
For more information on breast cancer gene testing, click here.