cancer genomics

Allison Kurian is Director of the Stanford Women’s Clinical Cancer Genetics Program, with a practice that centers on women at high risk of breast and gynecologic cancers. Trained in internal medicine, oncology, and epidemiology, Allison has embraced genetics (a fourth specialty!) as a tool for early detection and risk stratification.

Ten years after ACLU v Myriad changed the landscape of genetic testing overnight, how far have we come, and where are we headed next?

What if, someday, your doctor could order a single test able to screen for over 50 types of cancer? What if, someday, you had an effective screening option to offer patients identified with cancer susceptibility syndromes? What if, someday, we had a way to catch killers like lung, pancreatic and ovarian cancer early, when treatment was still an option?

What if that day were today?

If it sounds too good to be true, well – that’s the question, isn’t it? Tons of time, energy, and money has been poured into early cancer detection in the past 5 years. Now, Illumina’s re-acquired subsidiary Grail has launched Galleri, available in the U.S. for $949 (not covered, at least for now). Perhaps it is no coincidence that Illumina chose an oncologist as Chief Medical Officer.

We’re talking about early cancer detection with Dr. Phil Febbo on the Beagle.