New cancer hope with launch of ground-breaking genetic testing

Thousands of lives may be saved in England as a new ground-breaking genetic testing programme is formally rolled out. In a unique co-operation between NHS England and two Jewish charities, Jnetics and Chai Cancer Care, the tests are aimed at people with Jewish ancestry who may carry faulty BRCA genes and thus be more likely to develop cancer.

At a packed House of Lords reception co-hosted by Lord Wolfson and Lord Pannick, guests — including doctors, clinical nurses, laboratory technicians and counsellors who will work on the programme — the two men at the heart of the research spoke of their “delight” that the venture was finally under way.

As Lord Wolfson made clear, the statistics say it all: “In the general population, approximately one in 200 to 250 people have a BRCA gene mutation. In the Sephardi Jewish population, that goes down to about one in 140. In the Ashkenazi population it goes down to one in 40. Look around the room and do the maths.”

BRCA refers to two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, which repair DNA damage and normally help to protect against cancer. Some individuals are born with a fault in one of these genes, and this increases their likelihood of developing certain cancers, including breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer.

Professor Peter Johnson, professor of medical oncology at Southampton, and national clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said: “It is fantastic to have got to this point and to deliver for the first time a genetic testing programme across the population”. Critically, he said, the identification of faulty BRCA genes would aid the NHS in enhanced screening and preventative measures.

“It really represents a step-change in dealing with this kind of heredity and to see what we can do. We have been working at this programme ahead of the official launch to ensure we were able to deal with it efficiently. We have designed it as a most convenient programme: people [aged over 18] can register online or phone to register. They get a saliva test through the post and send it back. And they have access to a counselling hotline to deal with any concerns they may have”.

Since the programme began in a soft roll-out last year, there have been 5,200 testing kits sent out. More than 3,800 have already been returned, said Professor Johnson, and in giving results to more than 3,000 people, the programme had identified 83 people “who carried the BRCA abnormality and who were completely unaware of it up until that point”.

Professor Johnson praised Jnetics and Chai Cancer Care as “fantastic” in raising community awareness” of the programme. He added: “They were also massively patient with us when we had to slow down the programme because we got so many people coming through, that we weren’t sure the laboratories could cope”.

Professor Ranjit Manchanda has been working on the area of specific genetic population testing for 16 years and it is his and his team’s research which has led to the development of the NHS Jewish BRCA testing programme.

He told the audience that Britain was only the second country in the world to introduce such a programme, after Israel, and smilingly confided: “Ours is better!”

Professor Manchanda said that because of the new tests, the opportunity to prevent some cancers were greater in the Jewish community than in the general community.

Speaking later to Jewish News, he confirmed that the BRCA mutation was carried in men as well as women and hoped there would be an equal take-up in those applying for the test. He also said that though it was not definitely known why there was such a high presence of the BRCA mutation in the Ashkenazi Jewish population, “the theory is that because it is a small gene pool”. That theory was borne out by genetic testing in small niche populations elsewhere in the world.

Louise Hager, chair of Chai Cancer Care, speaking on behalf of Chai and Jnetics, which had successfully pitched their partnership to the NHS to help in encouraging the programme, said the hope was that 30,000 people would be tested over the next 18 months,

Jewish News understands that as a result of the launch, take up for testing has been phenomenal, with more than 2700 tests undergone Thursday alone.

People with at least one Jewish grandparent can register for a saliva kit to be sent to their home address by visiting: https://jewishbrca.org/