A poll conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) finds that physicians are split on whether or not they would recommend genetic screening for an asymptomatic patient expressing an interest in testing. The NEJM presented a fictional asymptomatic, 45-year-old man to readers. This patient was concerned about his cancer risk and asked his internist about genetic testing. In addition to the scenario, views from two experts were shared. The more than 900 NEJM readers who participated in the poll were split in their opinion, 40 percent against any testing and 60 percent saying they would recommend testing. Of those favoring testing, 12 percent of all voters say they would screen with whole-genome sequencing, while 47 percent would chose targeted sequencing. Respondents raised concerns about the management of the patient following test results as well as the financial consideration of genetic testing (both the cost of the test as well as potential downstream costs if screening showed increased risk). “The mixed results of the polls reflect, in part, concerns about genetic testing and about genome sequencing in asymptomatic persons who do not have a strong family history of diseases for which there are known genetic risk variants and available […]