deCode Genetics – Chief Scientific Officer – DNA Test may have saved his life…Prostate Cancer Diagnosis as a result

An executive of the company had his own DNA tested and the results were shocking and unexpected to say the least. Recently deCode Genetics spoke about working more with physicians in the education process of personalized medicine.

The test ran by the company he works for showed that he had a variant that nearly doubled the risk of prostate cancer, and this prompted him to visit his physician for a PSA test and with the results and a biopsy afterwards he found he was riddled with an aggressive type prostate cancer. He is 48 years of age and having immediate surgery. Was the DNA test a red flag, I think all would agree here that it was.

“DeCode’s prostate cancer test,, combines eight different SNP markers to determine a patient’s genetic risk of developing the disease.” BD

Jeffrey Gulcher had no reason to think much about prostate cancer. He was just 48, and the disease typically strikes later in life. Even the most cautious medical groups agree that most men need not begin annual prostate screenings until age 50. But Gulcher happens to be the chief scientific officer of deCODE Genetics -- one of several companies that, amid some controversy, have begun offering direct-to-consumer DNA tests that can help people predict which diseases they are likely to get. So in April, he spat into a test tube and, without giving the matter much thought, sent the sample in for analysis by his own company.