Working with a team of scientists, neurologist Ira Shoulson, M.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center has been undertaking a study of Huntington's disease that provides some real insight into how people will respond to a wave of genetic tests that are being developed and marketed. The group is repeatedly testing a group of 1,001 people who are at high risk of developing Huntington's, an incurable disease. These people, who have at least one parent who had the disease, have a 50 percent chance of developing it themselves. Interestingly, though, while a blood test exists to see if they have the gene that causes the disease, only one in ten of people who are at risk chose to be tested. The purpose of the test is to find therapies to alleviate or postpone the development of the disease. The team doesn't know why, but more than twice as many women as men have signed up to take part in the study.
- here's the report from EurekAlert for more information
PLUS: While we're on the subject of genetic testing, researchers say that they have developed one that reliably predicts whether the most common form of lung cancer will occur after surgery. Article