On Tuesday 28 May, BBC Breakfast is expected to feature the Faculty of Medicine’s research, funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research, which is exploring the ethical issues in discovering unexpected genetic test results otherwise known as incidental findings (IFs).
Through interviews with patients and health professionals the study, led by Gill Crawford and Anneke Lucassen, is outlining how future clinical practice may have to change to incorporate the possibility discovering such incidental finding.
Our ability to analyse the genetic make-up of the human body has rapidly improved over the last few decades. The genetic basis of different diseases is gradually being deciphered through scientific research and more and more people are having genetic tests to diagnose or predict illness within the health care system.
Genetic tests to date have largely been done to answer particular questions; “Have I got a high chance of breast cancer?” or “Have I inherited the condition in my family?” Modern day genetic testing can also answer questions we haven’t posed, and which might reveal entirely unexpected risk of disease.
But what do our genes really say about us? And what if a genetic test showed something that wasn’t expected that could affect you in later life? And what is the effect on the individual’s family?
Professor Anneke Lucassen, a clinical geneticist at the University and consultant in clinical genetics at Southampton General Hospital, comments: “Moving from targeted to broad genetic testing is resulting in a growing ethical and moral debate about how such tests should be used. There are questions we need to be thinking about as new technologies enter mainstream use.”
To find out more about the research tune into BBC breakfast on Tuesday 28 May, the feature is expected to air at 6.20am, 7.20am and 8.20am.