As a leader in the field of breast cancer research and treatment, Barbara Weber has broken new ground by creating a Web-based interface to allow women to determine their risk of breast cancer via the Internet.
Weber, the director of Penn's Breast Cancer Program, spoke to members of the Penn community yesterday as part of the Provost's Lecture Series in an address entitled "Individual Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer Risk: Promise, Progress and Controversy."
She talked primarily about the composition of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations that cause breast and ovarian cancers, the groups most at risk for the mutation and the actions women and men must take to prevent the diseases.
Weber said she wanted the approximately 50 attendees to acquire a new perspective on the prospect of genetic testing.
"What I hope students take away from this is a new way of looking at genetic disease susceptibility testing," she said. "In the past, it has been something that people are afraid of and don't know much about, and it is something that will become increasingly important in the near future."
Weber recommends genetic testing for those whose risk of having the mutated gene exceeds 50 percent, which can be determined by factors such as family disease history and whether the patient is of Eastern European descent.
"If we instituted population screening in Ashkenazi Jews, we could reduce ovarian cancer by 50 percent," Weber said. "And this is not an expensive proposition."
To allow people to gauge their susceptibility and decide whether they would like to receive the testing, Weber and her colleagues have designed a Web site which determines risk based on several questions.
"It will tell you your individual risk of a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation and your familial risk," she said.
Weber is emphatic in her belief that recognition of risk and subsequent testing are effective preventative tools.
"We think the real answer is that the BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing can save lives, though it is severely underutilized," she said.
However, Weber does not recommend testing for patients under 18 years of age due to possible emotional stress, regardless of family history.
Jen Hersh, a master's student in Bioethics, attended the lecture because of breast cancer history and testing within her family.
"My family has been tested, so I was curious to hear another view on the pros and cons of being tested," she said.
Others, such as College junior Angela Kulp, attended the lecture for extra credit because the topic related to her "Genetics and Politics" class.
"I think what our professor wanted us to get out of this is ... what role does politics play in who should get tested and why," Kulp said.
