Genetic Testing - An Opportunity for Sarcoma Patients
Genetic testing has the potential to provide sarcoma patients with increased understanding of their disease and optimal treatment options. Currently there are many for profit companies that will analyze individual’s DNA and provide information on disease risk and treatment options. These are usually “qualified” findings and recommendations and need to be interpreted and acted on carefully in conjunction with your physician and/or a genetic counselor. There are no agreed on standards for testing or for what biomarkers and genes should be analyzed. The Sarcoma Alliance does not endorse any of these companies or their findings and recommendations. 23andMe is one of these companies and provides DNA analysis for a fee but also has a research study to attempt to better understand genetic biomarkers for sarcoma. There is no charge for participating in their study but any individual findings should be discussed with your health care team.
23andMe Reseach Project
While some researchers strive to understand sarcoma by studying tumor samples, 23andMe wants to work with the patient community to find genetic markers associated with the disease. These markers might help us predict how likely someone is to develop sarcoma or how well a particular treatment will work for a specific patient.
There's strength in numbers.
In order to draw meaningful conclusions, 23andMe hopes to find at least 1,000 qualified individuals who have or have had sarcoma. Using simple online questionnaires they will collect information regarding patients' experiences, environments and responses to different therapies. They will then combine this information with genetic data to find patterns that will help to better understand the biology of sarcoma.
Join the 23andMe Sarcoma Community.
If you are a sarcoma patient or survivor, we want to give you the opportunity to take an active role in sarcoma research. For complete information click here. It's FREE and you get access to the full features of 23andMe
