Proteinomics?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 29, 2001

Answers

Now what indeed?

Atom cracking & fusion were baby steps compared to this rapidly coming scenario.

Get ready to pretend to be Me.

-- Big-G (keeping@eye.out), May 30, 2001.

Lars: MY personal dream is that the cost of genetic testing will finally reach the budget of an average person.

I come from a family with a history of colon cancer on both sides. It isn't fun to go in for colon "scopes" every few years, just to find that there ARE no polyps. I watched a T.V. documentary a while back about a woman who had breast cancer in her family. I think she paid $2,000 for a genetic test to see if she had the gene. She didn't, so could rest easily.

This subject came up over the weekend. My mom complained that she'd lost her tweezers again and she has hairs growing on her chin that she typically pulled out with a tweezers. My sister-in-law chimed in that she, too, had hairs growing on her chin. I felt around my chin, but didn't feel anything. It occurred to me, then, that *I* was on hormone replacement therapy. I asked my sister-in-law [who is at least 3 years older than I] if she was on HRT. She said, "No. They won't give it to me anyway. I've already had a biopsy on a little tumor on my breast and my mom had breast cancer." HRT is associated with an increased risk in breast cancer. If a genetic test for the gene associated with breast cancer were available at a reasonable cost, my sister-in-law and her sisters [some who even SHAVE their chins] could receive confirmation of whether the gene for this type of cancer was passed on or not. They could then decide whether HRT would be safe.

In addition, my brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. All those colon scopes and he got cancer somewhere else. His cancer was caught through those early blood tests, but it still had mestasized [I'm such a poor speller that I can't even find that word in my dictionary] to the point where he needed radiation treatments and probably won't know if he'll live or die until his blood tests show a level above some point.

To ME, it'll be an exciting moment when we can all afford to receive genetic testing to determine whether we have the gene for this cancer or THAT one.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), May 30, 2001.

I've got a younger brother who's adopted. He's always wished for some way to know what kind of genetic issues he might face. When we were kids, a neighbor had Lou Gehrig's disease and when my brother heard there was a strong genetic component, he freaked. I don't think he's gotten over the fact that something in his own hidden history could kill him.

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), May 30, 2001.

Tarzan, your brother may be able to persuade a judge to allow him access to at least the medical information contained in his original records. My adopted siblings had very odd medical issues in their early 20's, and when they found their birth parents they discovered a family history of these problems. Their particular problems could become deadly. I personally believe that all people have a legal right to know who they were at birth and all of their associated health information.

-- helen (not@home.anymore), May 30, 2001.

I agree Helen. He's dealing with trying to get his original records now. Unfortunately, he has to deal with the state his adoption was finalized in, which isn't very progressive when it comes to this sort of thing.

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), May 30, 2001.

Lars:

It actually isn't finished. This is just a first step. It will be a decade before the sequencing is finshed. Then they have to figure out what many of the gene products do.

This will be useful in testing for problems that are mono-genic in nature. These are few.

Note, this is my last serious statement and this one is for Lars.

Very,

Bemused

-- Bemused (Bemused@genetics.xxx), May 30, 2001.