Dr. Lauren Engel explains why genetic testing is important in advanced prostate cancer, highlighting how inherited mutations can guide treatment decisions and help family members better understand their own cancer risk and screening needs.
Dr. Lauren Engel:
I definitely think, in advanced prostate cancer, genetic testing is important. I think that's a newer thing, and so sometimes people have hesitations sometimes about their privacy or how will it negatively affect them. But their privacy's protected when we screen for genetics, and legally people can't prosecute you for your genetics that you inherited.
Sometimes it can affect your treatment options. The other thing that it can sometimes do is give recommendations for any blood relatives that you might have, and so some people will find out that they carry a mutation. One of the common ones that we look at is a BRCA mutation, and that might have implications for their daughters or their sons in regards to screenings that we might recommend at an earlier age for them. Sometimes, even if people say, "Oh, well, I don't care what it's going to mean for me," but if you can explain that it might affect their children or their siblings, sometimes they might be willing to proceed.