Genetic or Genomic?

When thinking about blood cancer and any related treatments, it is easy to focus on the possible impacts chemotherapy and radiation may have on you or a loved one. From someone who has been there, I can say the mere mention of the words chemo and radiation are scary. And should curiosity get the best of you, any casual search of the internet will turn up frightening stories regarding the impact these “cures” can have on patients.

Despite the side effects, treatments can be effective

The impacts can range from loss of appetite, upset stomach, hair loss, skin issues, nerve damage, etc., and more. Despite the possible negative patient reactions, the decades-old treatments can be effective. Personally, I experienced only a few negative reactions to treatment during my six months of chemo. The good news is that we all react differently and at the end of my treatments, the cancer was in remission. The possible side effects of radiation and chemo are well understood, and oncologists do their best to help you through the process. In addition to patient discomfort, the treatments are not selective when treating cancer. In short, they kill off both cancer cells and healthy cells with equal enthusiasm. It often took days or weeks before my body would return to what was an acceptable white blood count.

As with many things in life, there is a new light on the treatment horizon. If current trends continue it is possible that more oncologists will have a new tool to treat cancer. Apparently, in the last few years, encouraging advances have been made in the field of genomic testing. When applied to cancer, oncologists are beginning to treat some patient cancers with what are called “targeted therapies.”

What is targeted therapy?

Targeted therapy is a particular treatment protocol specifically designed for an individual based on the profile of cancer in your body. WOW! Unlike chemotherapy and radiation that destroy all cells, targeted therapy only attacks and kills the cancer cells while leaving the good cells to do their work. Whenever I mention targeted therapy, there is usually a lot of confusion over the meaning of “genetic” versus “genomic” testing. In our support groups, the terms are often used interchangeably.

In reality, they have very different meanings. So, what is the difference between genomic versus genetic?

What does genetic mean?

When discussing genetic, we are talking about the genes or traits your parents passed along to you. These can include a range of goodies such as height color of hair and eyes and more. When it comes to passing on cancer genes the American Cancer Society suggests that just 10% of cancers are inherited cancers. In short, the remaining 90% are most likely due to lifestyle and environment. The BRCA 1 and 2 breast cancer genes appear to be hereditary and have been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer and other cancers in women. Some reports also suggest that some inherited genes might be responsible for prostate cancer in men and in colorectal and other cancers for men and women alike.

The way to look at genetic testing is to think about it as a history book that suggests if something or some disease happened to your relatives in the past you might do well to be mindful of potential cancers and other issues as you age.

What does genomic mean?

Genomic testing is quite different in that it tries to find patterns in the DNA material that makes up cancer found in a patient’s body. Once identified the next step is to determine whether a particular treatment will be effective in killing cancer. Genomic testing really identifies whether a tumor is going to be a high or low risk, how aggressive it might be, what kind of treatment is needed, and most importantly will it respond to a specific drug protocol.

Genomic testing can help your doctor identify biomarkers for diagnostic testing. It can help determine the type of tumor and it can also track the disease progress and sensitivity through follow-up blood tests. So that is a quick explanation of how words that sound similar can have very different meanings.