When the human genome project completed in April 2003, it had taken 13 years to sequence the whole genome at a cost of around $2.7 billion. Technological advances in genomic testing mean that testing is now cheaper and faster than ever before, with results able to be returned within days. This means that testing is increasingly part of routine healthcare, with the UK government citing an ambition that by 2035, 50% of all healthcare interactions will be informed by genomic insights.
With expanding use of somatic tumour and ctDNA testing across cancer types, oncology healthcare professionals have developed the knowledge and capability to use genomic results to inform cancer diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Pharmacogenomic testing to inform the dose and selection of medicines used as part of cancer treatment is increasingly part of this picture, adding another piece of information that must be understood, explained and potentially shared across the system.
At the same time, despite broadly positive views towards having a pharmacogenomic test, understanding of pharmacogenomics in the general population is variable. Only around half of people in a UK survey thought that DNA variation can predict benefit or risk of side effect from medicines.
How and when should pharmacogenomics be explained to people going through a cancer treatment pathway? Is it important to differentiate between testing for inherited and somatic variants? What is the right language to use when talking about genomics with the public? And what are the crucial points that patients want to know about pharmacogenomic testing when it becomes part of their journey?
This talk will cover the key considerations to ensure patients and the public understand the pharmacogenomic information being shared with them in a way that enables shared decision making, building on learnings from implementation in primary care, and from patients and the public with lived experience of cancer treatment.