Should We Be Scared of Our DNA?
Prognosis: Misconception
Bloomberg
4.1 • 838 Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2019
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Prognosis, reporter Michelle Fay Cortez probes one of the more disturbing unintended consequences of the genetic testing revolution. DNA tests have become so prevalent that more and more people are discovering they have rare and potentially dangerous or even lethal genetic mutations. But how accurate are those findings? And what should people and their doctors do about them? Michelle tells the story of one family faced with the decision whether to proceed with life-altering surgeries to avoid facing a cancer diagnoses one day in the future.
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| 0:33.1 | Genetic testing in medicine has been a huge force for good. |
| 0:39.1 | But what happens when your test results come back with bizarre findings? |
| 0:43.5 | And your doctor advises you to take immediate radical steps. |
| 0:47.2 | They said, well, you really need to see you in. |
| 0:49.0 | They came and said, you have to have your stomach removed. |
| 0:51.5 | I went, what? |
| 0:52.9 | They said, yes, you need that immediately. |
| 0:55.4 | You know, and it kind of just sounded like nonsense to me. Honestly, I blew it off. And I was like, |
| 0:59.2 | okay, well, you know, I'm not paying any attention to that. Diane Dillon got the shock of her life |
| 1:06.7 | when she found out she had a rare genetic mutation that doctors told her can cause stomach cancer, |
| 1:12.7 | a terrible, hard-to-detect form of the disease that can quickly turn fatal. |
| 1:18.1 | Her son, Mike, had it too. |
| 1:20.2 | No one in the family had ever heard of the disease or the gene when they found out they were carriers in the fall of 2017. |
| 1:27.7 | That's not surprising. |
| 1:29.3 | It's extremely rare. |
| 1:31.2 | There are only a few hundred families with the mutation who have been studied by researchers. |
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