DIY DNA testing kits should not be bought as Christmas presents, doctors warn
DIY DNA testing kits that predict if you are at risk of cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s are ‘unreliable’, warn doctors
- Genetic tests can be bought cheaply online for patients to swab their cheeks
- Some claim to show ‘predispositions’ for diseases including cancer and diabetes
- Experts fear NHS will have to ‘pick up the pieces’ if patients get false readings
Do-it-yourself DNA testing kits should not be bought as presents this Christmas, leading doctors have said, due to concerns about their reliability.
The genetic tests, some of which claim to show ‘predispositions’ for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s, can be bought cheaply online.
But experts fear the NHS will have to ‘pick up the pieces’ if patients are falsely told they may be prone to genetic disorders over the busy winter period.
Do-it-yourself DNA testing kits should not be bought as presents this Christmas, leading doctors have said, due to concerns about their reliability (stock image)
Dr Imran Rafi, a GP who specialises in genomics, told the Royal College of GPs’ annual conference the tests have a ‘high degree of false-negatives and positives’ and that managing the fallout could use up valuable ‘NHS time and resources’.
He revealed when he took a DNA test sold by the company 23andMe it told him he had little risk of going bald – despite the fact he is heavily balding.
He added: ‘We should not be taking the results of these tests at face value.’ Consumer DNA tests, which first arrived in Britain in 2014, are booming in popularity.
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Patients are sent a kit directly to their door, where they swab their cheek and then send it off to a laboratory for analysis.
A London GP, who did not want to be named, told the panel: ‘The floodgates are wide open… I don’t dare guess how many of our patients under 30 are going to have some sort of genomic testing pack for Christmas.’
Patients are sent a kit directly to their door, where they swab their cheek and then send it off to a laboratory for analysis (stock image)
The firm 23andMe offers consumers a £79 saliva test to discover where in the world their ancestors came from, and how their DNA influences their facial features, taste, smell and other traits.
For £149 the company also provides a ‘health predispositions’ service, telling people how their genetics could raise their risk of type two diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Other similar offers are made by companies such as Orig3n, Vitagene and Lets Get Checked.
Last week, top doctors wrote in the British Medical Journal that the NHS is having to ‘pick up the pieces’ from the growing use of cheap genetic tests.
Experts from Southampton University, Exeter University and Southampton Hospital said the results should ‘absolutely not be used to inform health decisions without further scrutiny’.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, of the Royal College of GPs, said consumer genetic tests are ‘not sufficiently reliable and could cause undue worry or inappropriate reassurance for patients’.
She added that the fallout ‘should be the responsibility of the company that has been paid to perform the test’.
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