The big sell: Direct-to-consumer tests promise patients more abundant and accessible information, but potential pitfalls abound
Cancer Cytopathology
Bryn Nelson PhD
January 2016

In doing so, the expanding direct-toconsumer market may be fundamentally upending traditional physician–patient relationships and putting the onus squarely on patients to ask how companies will ensure reliable, relevant, and secure results and handle potential bombshells. “It's hard to unlearn information once you have it,” says Joy Larsen Haidle, Immediate Past President of the National Society of Genetic Counselors and a cancer expert.