From an interview with
Christel Hayes
McLeod High-Risk Genetic Nurse Practitioner

Genetic testing is useful in many areas of medicine and can help you make choices regarding the medical care you or your family member receives. For example, genetic testing can provide a diagnosis for a genetic condition or information about your risk for developing cancer. McLeod High-Risk Genetic Nurse Practitioner Christel Hayes explains why genetic testing is a powerful tool in managing your future health and wellbeing.

“When it comes to genetics, we all get two genes from our parents. You don’t know which gene you get. One of the genes may be mutated and increase your risk for cancer, and one of the genes may not; you won’t know until you’re tested.

People are concerned that their mother, who had a certain kind of cancer, died at a young age, and they’re concerned about their own risk and their children’s risk. And that’s where we’re able to get the information collected and then find out for them.

There are multiple risk factors for developing cancer. Some of them are the inherited risk factors that we were talking about. It can also be family history, lifestyle changes. I offer them the pre-counseling, which incorporates education, collection of history and the risk assessment, and then actual testing.

Within the collection, we try to establish the age of the family members. Some family members may not have anyone who’s lived beyond the age of 40, for whatever reason, so that will trigger the need for testing. So we try to establish the ages of family members when they passed away, find out why they passed away, and did their medical issues increase the risk for the patient who’s coming to a consultation with me? We go over the family history and the results, how many genes were tested, and which genes were tested; then we go over what the results said and what it means to the patient.

I encourage people to come to the office; get a referral. If you’re concerned about having hereditary cancers in your family, if you’re concerned about yourself or your children, get a referral and come and let me do an evaluation or risk assessment.”

If you have a family history of a genetic condition, have symptoms of a genetic condition, or are interested in learning about your chance of having a genetic condition, talk to your doctor about whether genetic testing is right for you.