Genetic Testing Can’t Do Our Behavioral Dirty Work

DNA PictureHere is the opening of a recent media story, reporting on a noble attempt researchers made to promote colon cancer screening by telling people when their genetic risk of such cancer was elevated:

People at average-risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) who underwent genetic and environmental risk assessment (GERA) to evaluate their risk for CRC were no more likely to undergo CRC screening than those people who did not receive this individualized assessment, results of a study showed.
Additionally, among those people who underwent GERA, those told that they were at elevated risk for CRC were no more likely to undergo screening than those told to be at average risk .

Along with Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby and Amy Lynn McGuire, I wrote an editorial accompanying the research report, which was published in the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine. Check out the media story if you are interested.

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