The latest in precision prevention news, curated for CancerIQ's community of oncologists, genetic counselors, breast centers, primary care providers, and anyone interested in staying ahead of cancer.
- Cancer top driver of employer health costs via Axios
In a survey of 135 large employers covering more than 18 million people in the U.S., 13% of companies said they have already seen more late-stage cancers.Another 44% said they anticipate seeing an increase in the future because of pandemic-related delays. It's an early indicator that deferred care is resulting in more complex and resource-intensive cases.
"Cancer care has become the top driver of large employers' health care costs due to an increase in late-stage diagnoses ... it's one of the early signs of how deferred care during the pandemic is resulting in more complex and resource-intensive cases."
As these companies look to "delivery system reforms," personalized, precision prevention and earlier detection leads the way as a cost-savings opportunity, but also a way to shift cancer staging back in the right direction to save more lives.
- NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Breast, Ovarian, and Pancreatic via the NCCN
"The new National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Guidelines® Version 1.2023 for Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Breast, Ovarian, and Pancreatic Cancers include updates on genetic assessments, hereditary cancer testing criteria, and patient risk management based on testing results.
CancerIQ is an official licensee of the NCCN guidelines, helping providers utilize them to stand up and scale high-risk hereditary cancer precision prevention programs. By automating these guidelines directly into clinical workflows, our software empowers genetics programs, breast centers, and beyond to close the loop on navigation to preventive services while increasing adherence and engagement.
Interested providers can review the NCCN updates above, or hear directly from one of CancerIQ's genetic counselor champions about how to implement the most up-to-date guidelines into clinical practice seamlessly here.
- Biden touts his 'cancer moonshot' on the anniversary of JFK's 'man on the moon' speech via NPR
Earlier this month, President Biden and The White House laid out updates to the Cancer Moonshot initiative – including plans for expanding investment in prevention and multi-cancer early detection strategies and technologies, creating precision treatment opportunities with genetics, and helping families navigate a complex cancer care system.
"It’s a disease we often diagnose too late and have too few ways to prevent it in the first place; where there are stark inequities" but, he noted, "for each of the ways we know cancer today, we know we can change the trajectory."
We're answering the call to end cancer as we know it through leadership, innovation, and access in the precision prevention and genetics space – and we hope you'll join us.
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“After meeting with a genetic counselor, undergoing genetic testing for Lynch syndrome II, and testing positive for a MLH1 mutation 11 years ago, I was shocked. Both of my brothers had colon cancer, but after meeting with a certified genetic counselor, I understood the gravity of the situation, the variety of cancers that can be involved and the impact this could have on multiple family members — even extended family members.
Knowing you have Lynch syndrome can be a good thing; it allows you to be proactive with your health by undergoing frequent scopes and screening, which can catch cancer in its genesis when it is most treatable."
Having a hereditary cancer syndrome, and the preventive care this medical knowledge unlocked for Georgia Hurst, her providers, and genetic counselor, changed – and saved – her life. It's time for every patient to have equitable access to the impact of a genetic testing program.
- How genetic testing led to an unexpected ovarian cancer diagnosis via UCLA Health
"Ovarian cancer is considered a 'silent killer.' ... It also causes more deaths in the U.S. than any other gynecologic cancer." Though Tara Paul, age 46, was proactive about her health, it wasn't until her enrollment in a clinical trial – which happened to include genetic testing – that she learned she had a BRCA2 mutation. She sought a risk-reducing prophylactic oophorectomy at her medical team's recommendation at UCLA Health, but that plan changed course when bloodwork revealed she was unknowingly already facing stage 3 ovarian cancer.
Tara Paul has been cancer-free for 3 years, but favorable outcomes powered by genetic knowledge – or pre-empting hereditary cancer altogether – shouldn't be reserved for only the most proactive and well-informed patients at top health systems.
With precision, personalized care that includes expanded genetic screenings, every provider can have access to preventive plan management for their patients at the highest risk of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer this Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and beyond.
- 'My Dad's Terminal Disease May Have Saved My Life' via Newsweek
"Family history is NEVER non-contributory in oncology!" because it can help identify a reason for germline testing that expands treatment options says Mark Lewis at Intermountain Healthcare of this previvor story.
Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, writes "A faulty BRCA was gene once thought to be rare, but is found in one out of 40 Ashkenazi Jews, which is my family heritage." Her family's unique provider–as–patient experience, as every single patient's does, required personalized, precision prevention.
It is her hope that telling her father's story "may be able to help the over 1 million people in the United States who have the BRCA mutation, 80 percent of whom don't know it."
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