Dr. Nimmi Kapoor on Multigene Panel Testing for Hereditary Breast Cancer

Nimmi Kapoor, MD, Breast and Thyroid Surgical Oncologist at Breastlink, discusses the benefits and safety of multigene panel testing in patients at risk for hereditary breast cancer.

Kapoor and her team conduced a study comparing multigene panel testing to the standard testing that has been traditionally done.

They looked at 966 patients, which were split into two groups, one which underwent standard testing and the other that underwent multigene panel testing. They found that almost identical rates of BRCA1 and 2 mutations, says Kapoor.

More interestingly, twice as many mutations were detected overall with the multigene panel testing than with the standard testing, says Kapoor. PALB2, CHEK2, and ATM, were identified with the multigene panel, common genes known to put women at risk for breast cancer,