From the New York Times.

A television commercial for genetic testing, aired this week in the Northeast, is stirring protests from some cancer and genetics specialists and has prompted an inquiry by Connecticut’s attorney general.

Critics say that advertising such a complex screening test to the general population might create unnecessary anxiety among women and lead to overuse of the test, which costs $3,120.

“It really preys on the fears of our society … said Ellen T. Matloff, director of cancer genetic counseling at the Yale Cancer Center, about the commercials by Myriad Genetics .

… The campaign comes at a time when government officials and some health specialists are expressing concern over the direct sales and advertising of genetic tests, some of them of dubious validity, to the public, mainly over the Internet.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 8:10 am and is filed under cancer, genetics, law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post