Publications by authors named "Tiara Hassan"
Article Synopsis
- The rise of PARPi therapies has shifted genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancers from risk management to treatment decisions, but a shortage of genetic counselors remains a challenge.
- Despite high interest (77%) among oncologists and surgeons in providing genetic counseling, 85% prefer referring patients to specialized services, pointing to concerns about costs and availability of genetic support.
- The study highlights a need for training non-genetics healthcare professionals in genetic counseling, particularly in low-to-middle income countries, emphasizing a focus on risk management over direct access to new therapies.
Article Synopsis
- - The study analyzed data from 7,600 Asian breast cancer patients aged 30 to 75 to understand how different risk factors, like family history and genetic predispositions, identify high-risk individuals for breast cancer.
- - Results showed a low correlation between the polygenic risk score (PRS) and the Gail model, with 53% of patients classified as high risk based on various criteria; PRS identified the most patients at high risk.
- - For younger women (under 50), PRS and protein-truncating variants (PTVs) were particularly effective in identifying high-risk individuals not detected by the Gail model or family history, highlighting the need for diverse risk assessment methods.
Article Synopsis
- - The study highlights the need for effective strategies to identify carriers of altered BRCA genes in Asian patients due to the growing use of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors for cancer treatment, which shows disparities in existing mutation prediction tools mainly designed for women of European descent.
- - Researchers developed the Asian Risk Calculator, assessing 8,162 Asian breast cancer patients, which incorporated factors like age, ethnicity, tumor characteristics, and family history to predict the likelihood of carrying a pathogenic BRCA variant.
- - The new model demonstrated improved accuracy and efficiency in identifying mutation carriers, reducing unnecessary referrals for genetic counseling, suggesting that tailored mutation prediction models are crucial for enhancing cancer genetics services in diverse populations.
Purpose: To provide precise age-specific risk estimates of cancers other than female breast and ovarian cancers associated with pathogenic variants (PVs) in and for effective cancer risk management.
Methods: We used data from 3,184 and 2,157 families in the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of to estimate age-specific relative (RR) and absolute risks for 22 first primary cancer types adjusting for family ascertainment.
Results: PVs were associated with risks of male breast (RR = 4.
Article Synopsis
- This study addresses the lack of representation of non-European populations in genetics research, focusing on developing breast cancer polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for women of Asian ancestry.
- It utilized a large dataset of over 138,000 women from various studies to generate different PRS models and tested their effectiveness across diverse ethnic groups, ultimately showing a strong hazard ratio for predicting breast cancer risk.
- The findings highlight the need for population-specific adaptations of PRSs to improve breast cancer risk assessment and move towards better clinical applications for Asian women.
The discovery of high-risk breast cancer susceptibility genes, such as Breast cancer associated gene 1 (BRCA1) and Breast cancer associated gene 2 (BRCA2) has led to accurate identification of individuals for risk management and targeted therapy. The rapid decline in sequencing costs has tremendously increased the number of individuals who are undergoing genetic testing world-wide. However, given the significant differences in population-specific variants, interpreting the results of these tests can be challenging especially for novel genetic variants in understudied populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe vast majority of studies assessing communication of BRCA1/2 results with relatives and family uptake of BRCA1/2 testing have been conducted in Western societies, and a dearth of studies have been conducted in Asia among relatives of diverse carriers of pathogenic BRCA1/2 germline variants. This study aimed to present rates of BRCA1/2 result disclosure by probands and probands' motivators and barriers of family communication and predictive testing uptake among eligible relatives. It also examined patterns of disclosure and testing uptake among different types of relatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Breast cancer risk factors have been examined extensively in Western setting and more developed Asian cities/countries. However, there are limited data on developing Asian countries. The purpose of this study was to examine breast cancer risk factors and the change of selected risk factors across birth cohorts in Malaysian women.
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