Dr Lynda McSorley, consultant medical oncologist and Lead for Cancer Genetics at St Vincent’s Healthcare Group in Dublin.
WHY GENETICS IS CHANGING CANCER CARE
About 12% of cancers have a known underlying DNA alteration which, over a lifetime, will increase cancer risk.They’re the population I really want to identify in my clinic because they’re women and men who may develop cancer under the age of the national screening programmes.They won’t be picked up through screening in the majority of cases.I developed mainstream testing pathways in Vincent’s. It’s the first hospital in Ireland bringing genetic testing for high-risk patients to an earlier point of care across breast, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate and GI cancers.
THE GYNAECOLOGICAL CANCER THAT’S ON THE RISE
Uterine cancer or endometrial cancer is on the increase globally, and the reasons aren’t entirely clear. A person will probably have about a 3% lifetime risk of developing it, unless they have a genetic predisposition.Lynch syndrome, [an inherited genetic condition] which is pretty common in Ireland, increases uterine cancer risk for a woman by up to 50%, depending on the variant. It’s an area where there’s a lot of clinical research, which is a real positive because, for many years, there hadn’t been as much by way of clinical trials or new treatment opportunities for women. We’re seeing a big change now and a lot of new drug options coming online.
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Lynch Syndrome Ireland 