More articles from Personalizing Patient Care
- How to spot heritable breast cancer: A primary care physician’s guide
Because breast cancer is common, primary care physicians will encounter many patients who have a personal or family history of it. Many patients may benefit from referral to a cancer genetics program for assessment, genetic counseling, and consideration of genetic testing. This article discusses the complexities of risk assessment in cancer genetics (focusing on breast cancer), and highlights the primary care physician’s role in identifying and caring for patients at risk.
- Clinical applications of pharmacogenetics: Present and near future
Pharmacogenetics promises to give clinicians the tools to make treatment decisions based on genetic testing.
- Should we use pharmacogenetic testing when prescribing warfarin?
There is evidence in favor of testing, but not yet enough to strongly recommend it.
A 67-year old man with an abdominal aortic aneurysmWho should be screened, what is the benefit, and how should patients found to have an aneurysm be treated?
- Detecting and managing hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes in your practice
These patients need to be identified so that they and their families can receive genetic counseling and testing and risk-reducing treatment.
- Genetic counselors: Your partners in clinical practice
As our understanding of the human genome has grown, so too has the need for health care providers to help patients and families understand the implications of these discoveries.
Family history: Still relevant in the genomics eraFamily history is still relevant, being a proxy for genetic, environmental, and behavioral risks to health.