GPs to pilot genomic testing to predict likelihood of breast and prostate cancer
GPs and neighbourhood teams will pilot genomic testing in primary care to predict the likelihood of conditions including breast and prostate cancer, NHS England has said.
The 10-year plan committed to creating a new genomics population health service which, supported by AI, will help predict likelihood of a person developing a condition before it occurs.
Now NHS England has said that over the next two years it will ‘focus on a pilot phase’, defining ‘priority conditions’, target cohorts and the implementation pathways that need to be put in place in the community.
In a webinar yesterday, the commissioner said that primary care has had little access to the genomic medicine services, so they want to ‘expand the testing offer’, with a focus on access to inherited disease testing and inherited predisposition testing, as well as:
- Exploring the use of polygenic risk scores, including targeted cohorts and higher risk population groups for breast, prostate and colorectal cancers as well as other diseases
- Pharmacogenomic testing, including developing cardiovascular disease and mental health panels, and developing a future model for incorporating this as part of the NHS Health Checks
It said that they are working on ‘digital solutions’ and that the delivery model will be focused on building ‘multi-professional leadership in the community’, including ‘working with primary care and primary care at scale’.
Professor Dame Sue Hill, chief scientific officer for England at NHSE, said: ‘We’ll roll out those existing genomic tests into community and primary care more than we’ve had now, and establish some of the core data and digital developments, and we want to test delivery models and generate early evidence and impact at three to five years.
‘It will be medium term scale, so beyond the pilots into broader populations and settings, and hopefully in all neighbourhoods, and looking at more innovative delivery models, and developing the polygenic risk scores and pre-emptive pharmacogenomics.
‘We’re at this stage seeking to identify neighbourhood health teams who would be interested in working with NHS England and the NHS Genomic Medicine Service as early adopters of this population health service.’
It comes as neighbourhood contracts which were announced as part of the 10-year plan and were expected at the end of last year have not been published yet.
NHS England previously said that the new contracts will be developed during this financial year, but the lead for neighbourhood health did not commit to a specific timeline for the contracts.
Nic Gitsham, strategic lead of the Neighbourhood Health Improvement Programme, told the webinar: ‘We’re waiting for the consultation to come out, my understanding is that there’ll be some information coming out.
‘It’s working its way through, but I’m not going to give a date, because I’m not clear on when, but we are waiting for that to come.’
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