Howard McLeod, Center Director at Center for Precision Medicine and Functional Genomics, shared on LinkedIn:
“Yet another important study showing that breast cancer clinical models are inadequate predictors of which patients should have hereditary cancer testing.
There is enough literature to suggest that requiring family history to guide testing could be causing harm. Family history is valuable, but not as a gatekeeping tool.
This study by Laura Esserman, Yiwey Shieh, and a talented group of colleagues also found little concordance between breast cancer polygenicriskscore and pathogenic variants.
I would hope so! As a reminder, hereditary cancer testing PLUS PRS is the cutting edge. Still a need for more data to refine interventions based on PRS, but a positive PRS is it’s own thing and not a step before hereditary cancer testing.”
Title: Impact of Population-Based Pathogenic Variant Testing on Risk-Based Breast Screening Recommendations
Authors: Yiwey Shieh, Rachel S. Heise, Lisa Madlensky, Leah P. Sabacan, Irene A. Soto, Allison S. Fiscalini, Katherine Ross, Deborah Goodman, Amie Blanco, Susie Brain, Diane Marie Heditsian, Jackelyn Moya, Kirkpatrick B. Fergus, Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, Maren T. Scheuner, Martin Eklund, Elad Ziv, Jeffrey A. Tice, Laura van ‘t Veer, Laura J. Esserman for the Athena Breast Health Network and WISDOM Study Investigators and Advocate Partners
You can also read:
Breast Cancer in 2026: Molecular Interception, MRD, ADC Sequencing and De-Escalation
