What Are the Key Considerations When Providing Cancer Genetic Counseling to Patients?

7.25.2016

Genetic test results are effective only when they are interpreted correctly, which involves much more than simply reading what is written on the report from the laboratory. Genetic counselors are clinical experts who can ensure that genetic testing is used appropriately and applied properly

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Genetic Counseling: A Growing Area of Opportunity

7.25.2016

Genetic counseling positions are also becoming available in many different medical areas and work environments. “Genetic counselors can work in multiple specialty areas, including prenatal, cardiovascular

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Serving Families with Science and Empathy

7.25.2016

Genetic counseling was born out of the need and desire to help those patients “understand and adapt to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic contributions to disease,” according to the U.S.

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Black Women are Less Likely to Have Breasts and Ovaries Removed to Prevent Cancer

7.25.2016

“In general, there are cultural influences on the decision” to remove healthy breasts and ovaries, said Joy Larsen Haidle, a genetic counselor at the Humphrey Cancer Center in Minneapolis

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Genetic Testing For Cancer Risk Is On The Rise -- But Is It Smart?

6.1.2016

Still, the risk of getting a fuzzy result from a genetic test worries some genetic counselors. Such results “don’t tell us anything,” says Joy Larsen Haidle, a genetic counselor

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Genes Vs. Bad Habits In Heart And Brain Diseases: Is Testing The Answer?

6.1.2016

There are also about 20 genetic tests that can assess one’s risk of suffering an aneurysm—a bulging blood vessel that can be fatal if it bursts in the brain or the aorta that feeds the heart.

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Is the Cure for Obesity Written in our Genes?

6.1.2016

Genetic testing has gone mainstream. A rapidly growing understanding of how genes contribute to disease is making it feasible for anyone to undergo testing for dozens of genes and genetic mutations—and to learn how they might take action to prevent a range of conditions

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Here’s What Men Need to Know About the Angelina Jolie ‘Breast-Cancer Gene’

6.1.2016

You should also consider testing if you have two or more female relatives who got breast cancer at any age on the same side of the family, or one who developed breast cancer before 50

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A Medical Test that Aims to Wean America off Painkillers

5.11.2016

"Opioid addiction, like most human behavioral traits, is a very complex issue that is hugely unlikely to be comprehensively explained by a small set of genetic variations," said Austin.

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A Blood Test for Cancer

5.11.2016

A few companies have begun advertising diagnostic liquid biopsy tests, but patients who are tempted to ask doctors for these unapproved tests should think twice, says Joy Larsen Haidle, past president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors.

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