Senior doctors have called for a crackdown on consumer genetic tests, following an influx of patients who have been wrongly told they are carrying dangerous mutations linked to cancer or other devastating conditions. One patient was scheduled for preventive breast-removal surgery after a consumer genetic test suggested she had a BRCA mutation. The surgery was called off at the last moment when an NHS laboratory revealed the result to be a false positive. The major consumer genetics companies, such as 23andMe or AncestryDNA, typically offer just ancestry testing or health readouts restricted to a handful of conditions. Iwegbue said it was “absolutely” reasonable for NHS clinics to cover the cost of interpreting and validating private genetic tests.

Source: The Guardian July 21, 2019 15:00 UTC