Personalized medicine and genetic malpractice

摘要

Angelina Jolie's recent revelation that she had prophylactic surgery to reduce her breast cancer risk after BRCA genetic testing has increased public interest in preventive genetic testing. This so-called "Angelina effect" exemplifies a growing consumer interest and medical uptake of genetic testing in response to the increased availability and utility of clinically relevant genetic data. The advent of next-generation DNA sequencing will further accelerate this trend toward increased reliance on genetic data in the health-care system, and health-care providers, in almost every specialty, will be required to have some familiarity with genetic data.