A NEW FRONT IN CONTROVERSY OVER GENETIC TESTING. If you happen to tune into Oprah, Dr. Phil, or the Today Show this week across the Northeast (popular shows with TAPPED readers, right?), you'll see some of the first direct-to-consumer advertising for genetic testing in the United States. Myriad Genetics is targeting women 25 to 55 years old with the tagline "Be ready for cancer," hoping to convince them to pay $3,120 to undergo BRACAnalysis. The test detects gene mutations that mean a woman has a 10 to 50 percent chance of developing breast cancer. But what the ads don't reveal is that outside certain ethnic populations, such as Ashkenazi Jews, only 10 percent of breast cancer cases are linked to genetics. The Connecticut attorney general's office has opened an inquiry into the advertising campaign, the New York Times reports. Ellen Matloff, director of cancer genetic counseling at the Yale Cancer Center, told the Times, "It really preys on the fears of our society, and one of those fears is getting breast cancer." --Dana Goldstein
