While next-generation genome sequencing can successfully guide cancer therapy, it can also reveal significant incidental findings that patients, families, and physicians may not be prepared to handle and may not want to know.
Paul J. Christine, MPH and Lauris C. Kaldjian, MD, PhD
Shared decision making requires that physicians acknowledge their responsibility to the patient, their responsibility to be true to their own clinical judgment about the patient's best interest, their accountability to society, and the uncertainty of the evidence.
Assigning community based on race suggests that phenotype reveals something consistent about biology that is equal in standing to factors like weight, dietary habits, smoking history, and whether or not you had rheumatic fever as a child.
Anne-Marie Laberge, MD, PhD and Wylie Burke, MD, PhD
Physicians and counselors must address the importance of communicating genetic test results to family members in the pre-test counseling and informed-consent processes prior to testing.