Experts foresee huge growth in genetic medicine

The increase in the ease and speed of conducting genetic tests and the fall in their cost is set to lead to “an explosion in this area,” the chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, London, has said.

Alan Ashworth was speaking at a background briefing on the future of genetic medicine. But although he and his fellow panellists were enthusiastic about what the field has to offer in technical terms, they were less certain of its short term prospects in the health service.

In the context of cancer—“the poster child of genetic and genomic medicine,” as Professor Ashworth described it—progress is already being made …