Study underscores importance of genetic testing in genitourinary cancers

In this video, Mouneeb Choudry, MD, and Adri Durant, MD, shared the take-home message from the Journal of Urology study “Germline Pathogenic Variants Identified in Patients With Genitourinary Malignancies Undergoing Universal Testing: A Multisite Single-Institution Prospective Study.” Choudry and Durant are urology residents at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona.

Transcription:

What is the take-home message for the practicing urologist?

Durant: I think the biggest take-home message is just the importance of genetic testing. I think we were really shocked by the incremental findings or the findings that would have been missed by guidelines and the number of changes that would have happened and impacting patients based on surveillance and cancer screenings and the amount of family members that got tested based on these. And so I think that it's important to remember the guidelines and important to consider genetic testing and just important to consider how germline genetic testing will continue to evolve in its role in GU cancers, as it's important and its implications for treatment decisions, surveillance and impactful for patient family members.

Choudry: I do want to give a special thanks to the Invitae company; they helped us with this trial. And then a special thanks to our mentors, Dr. Tyson, Dr. Samadder, and Dr. Andrews, who really helped us out with this.

This transcription was edited for clarity.