Dr. Robert Coleman on BRCA Testing in Ovarian Cancer

Robert Coleman, MD, professor in the department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses BRCA testing for ovarian cancer.

The current recommendations for BRCA testing say that high-grade serous patients should get it at the diagnosis. However, recent data has shown that other histology types have enough of a frequency that it's worth testing there as well, says Coleman. Outside mucinous tumors, germline testing has been done across the board, says Coleman.

Germline and somatic BRCA alterations look similar, says Coleman. There isn’t much data on other non-BRCA germline mutations that might be associated with familial or genetic risk, and what their likelihood is, but that field is expanding, says Coleman.