- What’s the impact of a variant not detected (not found) result?
If your test result shows no genetic variant is found, you may feel a sense of relief and reassurance.
If you don’t have a family history of ovarian and/or breast cancer, it’s most likely that the ovarian cancer was a one-off event in your family. This is called sporadic cancer. It means that your risk of developing breast cancer or other cancers linked to inherited gene variants is likely similar to people without a gene variant. It also means that your children won’t have the chance of inheriting a gene variant and being at increased risk of cancer.
If you have a strong family history of ovarian and/or breast cancer, a no variant detected result may leave you feeling uncertain. Researchers are still finding new gene variants that increase the risk of ovarian cancer. It’s possible that you have a variant in a different gene not found by testing yet. Research is ongoing to try to find out all the variants in different genes that may increase the risk of ovarian cancer.
If you have a strong family history of ovarian and/or breast cancer, this could suggest that you have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Your treatment team or clinical genetics team may talk to you about options for reducing your breast cancer risk even if your genetic test result was negative.
If your result is variant not detected, cascade testing won’t be available for the rest of your family. This is because no variant that causes the cancer has been found and it’s less likely that the cancer has been inherited.
If you have a family history of ovarian and/or breast cancer, close relatives may still have an increased risk of developing cancer. There may be options for them to manage this risk, which your treatment team can tell you about.
- What’s the impact of a variant of unknown significance (VUS) result?
If the test found a genetic variant of unknown significance (VUS), this means that the test has found a gene variant in the BRCA1, BRCA2, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, RAD51C, RAD51D, BRIP1 or PALB2 gene. But researchers currently don’t think that this variant is the cause of the cancer.
Most VUS results are likely to be harmless differences in a person’s genes. But if it hasn’t been seen many times before, then it’s included in the test report as being of unknown significance.
The number of people who are given a VUS result is going down as researchers find out more about the different variants that increase the risk of ovarian cancer.
As more is discovered about genes, there may be more information about the VUS in future. A small amount of VUS results have already been reclassified as cancer–causing or not.
The clinical genetics team may contact you if they have reclassified the VUS. Not all teams will contact their patients. So you may want to contact your clinical genetics centre every few years to see if they know more about the VUS. You should also contact your clinical genetics centre if there’s any change to your family history of cancer. This can sometimes help with reclassifying the VUS.
If you haven’t already been in touch with them, find your local clinical genetics centre.
- What’s the impact of variant detected (found) result?
If a variant is found, you’ll be told which gene the variant is in. The gene variant may impact:
If your genetic testing was done by your treatment team, you will be referred to the clinical genetics team after receiving your result. You will be offered genetic counselling to explain the impact of your result.
The clinical genetics team will give you your personalised risk assessment. This is a document that estimates your risk of developing certain cancers based on your:
- family history of cancer
- genetic test results
- health and current lifestyle.
The team will also talk to you about ways to manage your increased risk of other cancers. After the appointment you will receive a letter that includes your results and ways to manage your risk.
