title: Alison's Story--A Cautionary Tale in the Age of Genomic Medicine.
abstract: Alison's story illustrates the disastrous consequences of not securing an accurate family history when evaluating a patient for solid tumor malignancy; this is even more acute when the patient is diagnosed at a young age or has other close relatives affected by the disease. Rapidly advancing genomic technologies directly challenge traditional management practices of referring all patients who may require genetic testing to a genetic counselor or clinical genetics service because next-generation targeted molecular therapies may be indicated based on genomic DNA analysis and may be required urgently to treat life-threatening advanced disease, at times, before genetic counseling.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetic Medicine, International Centre for Life, Newcastle University, Central Parkway, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3BZ, UK. Electronic address: john.burn@newcastle.ac.uk.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Burn
mesh_terms: D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005820:Genetic Testing; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy*; D057285:Precision Medicine / Q000639:trends*; D018570:Risk Assessment
keywords: Breast cancer; Family history; Genetic testing; Targeted molecular therapy