Peering Into the Future[Genetic Testing]

Newsweek ^ | 11 Dec 2006 | Claudia Kalb

[FLOutdoorsman]

Genetic testing is transforming medicine—and the way families think about their health. As science unlocks the intricate secrets of DNA, we face difficult choices and new challenges.

Dec. 11, 2006 issue - The year is 1895 and Pauline Gross, a young seamstress, is scared. Gross knows nothing about the double helix or the human-genome project—such medical triumphs are far in thefuture. But she does know about a nasty disease called cancer, and it's running through her family. "I'm healthy now," she reportedly confides to Dr. Aldred Warthin, a pathologist at the University of Michigan, "but I fully expect to die an early death."

At the time, Gross's prediction (she did indeed die young of cancer) was based solely on observation: family members had succumbed to colon and endometrial cancer; she would, too. Today, more than 100 years later, Gross's relatives have a much more clinical option: genetic testing. With a simple blood test, they can peer into their own DNA, learning—while still perfectly healthy—whether they carry a hereditary gene mutation that has dogged their family for decades and puts them at serious risk. Ami McKay, 38, whose great-grandmother Tilly was Gross's sister, decided she wanted to know for her children's sake. In 2002, the answer came back: positive. "It changes who you are," says McKay.

[annie laurie]

Ping

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl