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New recommendations for treating bad cancer patients could save lives, as North Texas doctors say genetic testing is the answer.
Doctors at Texas Health Dallas have helped create new national guidelines not only to save lives, but also to prevent bad cancer in families.
Kenya Love Lawson participates in the management of Texas Health Dallas mobile unit.
It was a call born from a dark period in his life.
"At age 40, the very first screening mammogram I had was abnormal. A year later, at the age of 41, I was diagnosed with bad cancer, "she said.
As a survivor, she knows that tools such as genetic testing, which can help target a patient's treatment, are essential.
"We have invaluable support for doing what's right, which makes me all the more enthusiastic as it's controversial," said Dr. Walton Taylor, Oncologist Surgery at Texas Health Dallas.
Dr. Taylor is the president of the American Society of Breast Surgeons, who has just released new guidelines recommending genetic testing for most bad cancer patients – not just for those with present mutations of BRCA genes 1 and 2.
"We found out from the data that we had missed a lot of patients with mutations," said Dr. Taylor.
He adds that genetic testing not only helps doctors to target their treatment, but also to determine if a patient is at risk for other cancers, and that the technology has evolved enough that the cost is no longer prohibitive.
"Genetic testing currently done in many labs is less expensive than a diagnostic mammogram and an ultrasound," said Dr. Taylor.
Lawson says that genetic testing has revealed that she does not have genes commonly badociated with bad cancer, but she is happy to have been tested for herself and her family.
"I knew that if I did not know enough about my story, I needed to know it for my own children," she added.
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