Development of cancer genetic services in the UK: a national consultation
Development of cancer genetic services in the UK: a national consultation
Background: technological advances in DNA sequencing have made gene testing fast and affordable, but there are challenges to the translation of these improvements for patient benefit. The Mainstreaming Cancer Genetics (MCG) programme is exploiting advances in DNA sequencing to develop the infrastructure, processes and capabilities required for cancer gene testing to become routinely available to all those that can benefit.
Methods: the MCG programme held a consultation day to discuss the development of cancer genetics with senior representation from all 24 UK cancer genetic centres. The current service landscape and capacity for expansion was assessed through structured questionnaires. Workshop discussion addressed the opportunities and challenges to increasing cancer gene testing in the National Health Service (NHS).
Results: services vary with respect to population served and models of service delivery, and with respect to methods and thresholds for determining risk and testing eligibility. Almost all centres want to offer more cancer gene testing (82%) and reported increasing demand for testing from non-genetic clinical colleagues (92%). Reported challenges to increasing testing include the complexity of interpreting the resulting genetic data (79%), the level of funding and complexity of commissioning (67%), the limited capacity of current processes and cross-disciplinary relationships (38%), and workforce education (29%).
Conclusions: priorities to address include the development and evaluation of models of increasing access to gene testing, the optimal process for interpretation of large-scale genetic data, implementation of appropriate commissioning and funding processes, and achieving national consistency. The UK cancer genetics community have high expertise and strong commitment to maximising scientific advances for improved patient benefit and should be pivotally involved in the implementation of increased cancer gene testing.
Slade, Ingrid
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Riddell, Daniel
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Turnbull, Clare
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Hanson, Helen
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Rahman, Nazneen
d5eded76-0af9-4d72-8fea-84986bf49c51
2 February 2015
Slade, Ingrid
264e62f4-7c1e-4522-93f2-917de23e31d3
Riddell, Daniel
a7a85f82-7f83-45b2-86b1-26b520c46e37
Turnbull, Clare
63408861-754b-4f55-a010-29d1bea914e2
Hanson, Helen
fe4a8065-8b0d-4b30-a658-cd433570c2ec
Rahman, Nazneen
d5eded76-0af9-4d72-8fea-84986bf49c51
Slade, Ingrid, Riddell, Daniel, Turnbull, Clare, Hanson, Helen and Rahman, Nazneen
,
MCG programme
(2015)
Development of cancer genetic services in the UK: a national consultation.
Genome Medicine, 7 (1), [18].
(doi:10.1186/s13073-015-0128-4).
Abstract
Background: technological advances in DNA sequencing have made gene testing fast and affordable, but there are challenges to the translation of these improvements for patient benefit. The Mainstreaming Cancer Genetics (MCG) programme is exploiting advances in DNA sequencing to develop the infrastructure, processes and capabilities required for cancer gene testing to become routinely available to all those that can benefit.
Methods: the MCG programme held a consultation day to discuss the development of cancer genetics with senior representation from all 24 UK cancer genetic centres. The current service landscape and capacity for expansion was assessed through structured questionnaires. Workshop discussion addressed the opportunities and challenges to increasing cancer gene testing in the National Health Service (NHS).
Results: services vary with respect to population served and models of service delivery, and with respect to methods and thresholds for determining risk and testing eligibility. Almost all centres want to offer more cancer gene testing (82%) and reported increasing demand for testing from non-genetic clinical colleagues (92%). Reported challenges to increasing testing include the complexity of interpreting the resulting genetic data (79%), the level of funding and complexity of commissioning (67%), the limited capacity of current processes and cross-disciplinary relationships (38%), and workforce education (29%).
Conclusions: priorities to address include the development and evaluation of models of increasing access to gene testing, the optimal process for interpretation of large-scale genetic data, implementation of appropriate commissioning and funding processes, and achieving national consistency. The UK cancer genetics community have high expertise and strong commitment to maximising scientific advances for improved patient benefit and should be pivotally involved in the implementation of increased cancer gene testing.
Text
s13073-015-0128-4
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Accepted/In Press date: 9 January 2015
Published date: 2 February 2015
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 507558
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/507558
ISSN: 1756-994X
PURE UUID: 19780ff8-1948-4f07-b394-b8ebe16a443f
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Date deposited: 12 Dec 2025 17:39
Last modified: 13 Dec 2025 03:08
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Contributors
Author:
Ingrid Slade
Author:
Daniel Riddell
Author:
Clare Turnbull
Author:
Helen Hanson
Author:
Nazneen Rahman
Corporate Author: MCG programme
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