Tigger
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2008
- Messages
- 388
Thanks for your posts, Nords! Good luck with everything!
Took me a long time to get through it and write it up, but it's posted:
23andMe genetic testing
A snippet, perhaps, or summary for those who cannot get past the NYT paywall?Update NYT op-ed on gene testing costs:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/opinion/the-outrageous-cost-of-a-gene-test.html?_r=0
ANGELINA JOLIE’S revelation that she had had a preventive double mastectomy was eloquent and brave. She had learned that she inherited a faulty copy of a gene, BRCA1, that put her at high risk for invasive breast cancer as well as ovarian cancer. Now women everywhere are asking: Should I get the same test? What will it cost?
Only one in about 400 women carry mutations to BRCA1 or to a related gene BRCA2, though such hereditary defects are implicated in between 5 percent and 10 percent of all breast cancers. The majority of the 230,000 cases of breast cancer diagnosed annually in the United States are not related to these genes. But if you’re that one in 400 women, you’d want to know so you could make informed decisions about your health care.
Unlike routine tests for diabetes or high cholesterol, however, the BRCA gene evaluation — performed by only one company in the United States, Myriad Genetics — is phenomenally expensive, with a “list price” close to $4,000 when a related genomic-rearrangement test is included in the analysis, which oncologists typically recommend.
The question is why? Today, molecular scientists like me can sequence all of an individual’s genes — at least 20,000 of them — for about $1,000. About five cents per gene.
One company, 23andMe, charges people $99 to see if they have gene variants that put them at higher risk for 120 diseases and whether they carry a known heritable mutation in an additional 50, including cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and Tay-Sachs disease.
I was wondering if you knew if this test covered things like Crigler Naajar syndrome? I'm pretty certain that I'm going to die someday, but would love to know if I was going to pass something this bad down to someone. I don't personally have it but my partner does. This means that if both of us have the mutated gene we could produce children with a fatal illness.
Ancestry.com also offers the service for $99.