Our response to today’s launch by NICE of new national guidelines on familial breast cancer, which expand access to BRCA testing.
Professor Nazneen Rahman, Head of Genetics at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and of the Cancer Genetics Clinical Unit at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“The NICE guidance increases the number of people who will be eligible for BRCA gene testing, moving the UK in line with Europe and the US. This is an important and welcome change. NICE also found it would be cost-effective to further increase access to BRCA testing, but didn't recommend doing so because of current limitations in NHS capacity. We, and others, are focusing on improving capacity within the NHS to offer BRCA testing so that many more people can benefit from gene testing in the near future.”