Hartford managed care provider Aetna Inc. is footing the cost for a study billed as the first of its kind to determine whether women most at risk for breast cancer are getting access to available genetic testing to identify markers for the disease.
Aetna will fund the two-year study involving about 13,000 Aetna members in a community health setting who receive genetic testing for two kinds of breast cancer markers.
It will be led by the University of South Florida and Georgetown University, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society.
Aetna said it will spend $222,875 on the study. Aetna Foundation also was involved in the study’s conception.
Testing is available to help identify if a woman is likely to face one of her gender’s worst fears: inherited breast and ovarian cancer, Aetna said.
But significant questions have been raised among doctors and public health agencies about whether these tests are being offered to the women who can most benefit – consistent with the evidence-based guidelines for this testing – and whether the information learned from testing is being put to best use.
The study will explore patterns of how and for what groups of women the available genetic tests for breast cancer 1 and breast cancer 2 mutations are being used in the community health care setting.
It will also address whether, as suspected, significant disparities exist in the use of these tests among women of different socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups, the insurer said. The study also will examine the use of risk-reduction and screening services by patients following testing.
“To date, there has been no national study of BRCA testing in the community settings where most people receive their care,” said Dr. Rebecca Sutphen, professor of genetics at the University of South Florida and lead investigator on the planned study. “We need to ask, who is being tested? Do they have access to the right experts and the right information to allow them to make informed decisions about testing? What choices are they being given and what options are they choosing to manage their cancer risk? The answers to these questions have tremendous public health impact.”
Breast cancer is the second-most common cancer and is the second leading cause of cancer death among American women in the United States.
