A Decade Later, a Patient Finds Out Her Genetic Test Was Wrong
Should scientists give results to participants in research studies if they haven’t been validated in a clinical lab?
SALT LAKE CITY—In the mid-2000s, when Vicki Rieke’s mom was being treated for her second bout of colon cancer in a hospital out of state, doctors suggested it was time to get tested. Colon cancer can be genetic, but it is also one of the more preventable cancers. A genetic test could give Vicki and her siblings life-saving information.
As it turns out, her mom, Dianne King, did have a mutation for Lynch syndrome. The condition predisposes people to a whole host of cancers. (She passed away last month after her sixth cancer.) Her children had a 50/50 percent chance of inheriting that Lynch
