Author Archives: Edward Weinman

The battle against breast cancer gets personalized

Posted by Edward Weinman under Breast Cancer, Genetic Research, Genetic Tests, deCODEme on Oct 27
deCODE Breast Cancer enables women to understand whether they may benefit from more intensive screening, monitoring or preventive drug therapy.

A new genetic test assessing a woman's risk of developing the most common forms of breast cancer has arrived. Can the test, developed by the biopharmaceutical company deCODE, improve the way doctors screen for breast cancer?

Breast cancer kills 40,000 people a year in the U.S. This is about the population of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Imagine, each year an entire city wiped out by breast cancer.

To help fight breast cancer, a new test assessing individual risk has just become available. For women without a clear family history of the disease, the deCODE BreastCancerTM test assesses their personal risk of developing the most common forms of breast cancer. The DNA test, launched by the biopharmaceutical company deCODE, makes it possible to identify those women at significantly higher than average risk, helping doctors use new screening technologies and treatments in a more targeted, personalized and effective manner.

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Genetic test was an investment in myself

Posted by Edward Weinman under Customer Stories, Genetic Tests, deCODE genetics, deCODEme on Oct 3
Jack Doughery says deCODEme genetic test was an investment

Jack Doughery says deCODEme genetic test was an investment

Jack Doughery feels great and wants everyone to know it.

“I almost feel evangelical about my health,” says the 62-year-old businessman from Spokane, Washington. “I’m so excited about what can happen if you do the right things and have the right tools.”

Jack started doing the right things once he began what he calls his journey, which kicked off one day after waking up at three in the morning craving a cigarette.

“When you’re waking up at three in the morning, coughing and spluttering, and the only way to calm down is by smoking a cigarette, you don’t have to be too smart to know this might not be the way to go. It got my attention,” he remembers.

One of Jack’s first stops along his grand trip was at Spokane’s Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Clinic, run by nurse practitioner Amy Doneen. It was Doneen and Dr. Bradley Bale who put Jack on the path to prevention, helping Jack to reshape his life using diagnostic testing, nutrition and exercise.

Recently, Amy Doneen began using a new test to help alter Jack’s journey—deCODEme, a genetic test that scans a patient’s genome for markers relating to 30 various diseases. The deCODEme genetic test gauges a patient’s average and lifetime risk of developing diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart attack, prostate cancer, and most recently bladder cancer.

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A hypocondriac meets deCODEme and comes out eating apples

Posted by Edward Weinman under Customer Stories, Genetic Tests, deCODE diagnostics, deCODE genetics, deCODEme on Sep 2

A hypocondriac meets deCODEme and comes out eating apples, by Edward Weinman

By Edward Weinman

With a simple swab from the inside of your cheek, deCODE genetics can scan your DNA, map your markers and assess your risk of developing 29 common diseases. Edward Weinman, self-described hypochondriac, wonders if he should look too closely at his possible future.

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