London hospital widens access to genetic tests for ovarian cancer

Cancer experts at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London have proposed a new “oncogenetic” pathway that could allow more patients to have genetic tests to find out if they are susceptible to ovarian cancer.

During a six month pilot from July to December 2013, oncologists at the hospital offered 114 patients with ovarian cancer the test to establish whether they carried the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, which increases a woman’s susceptibility to the disease.

Identifying these gene mutations can influence decisions about patients’ treatment and can lead to their relatives taking action to prevent future cancers. But until now most centres have offered this test on the NHS only if patients have a strong family history of the disease, and …