Why is there a patent on the breast cancer genes?

The ACLU recently filed a lawsuit against a company that holds a patent on two breast cancer genes. Find out why the patent is controversial and how it affects women's health in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?
From House Towards dot com. Hey there, and welcome to
the podcast. This is Kristen and Mrs Molly. Molly. Breast

(00:21):
cancer has been in the news a lot this week
and it's heartbreaking news, honestly. Um. There was a ten
year old Hannah pale al Slam who was diagnosed with
breast cancer, and then there was some follow up news
of an eight year old girl who was diagnosed with
ovarian cancer, and it really caught a lot of women's

(00:44):
attention because we think of breast cancer ovarian cancer is
something that really affects people maybe our mother's age, um,
but it is in fact something that can happen to
two girls this young. So that kind of got me
thinking about breast cancer and why so prevalent among women,
and um, what else is going on with with prevention?

(01:09):
Right And at the same time that all of this
uh sad news was coming out, there were also reports
that the a c l U had UH sort of
organized a lawsuit against MARYA Genetics, which holds the patent
on the breast cancer genes breast cancer gene one and
breast cancer gene two, which from here on out we're
just gonna say Braca. UM. The lawsuit challenges the patents

(01:34):
that this company holds on these two genes, which occur
naturally in the body. UM about of human genes are patented,
so they're not the only ones that have patents, but UM,
since married was the first to sequence this gene, they've
had this patent on it for a few years. And
a CLU says this is unconstitutional, right because Mary Genetics

(01:56):
has used UH this patented gene in order to develop
testing for BROCA there it's the only company right now
that is legally allowed to conduct testing for Brocco one
and Broca two and UH. The a c l U
is concerned about quality assurance and whether or not more

(02:17):
competition in the marketplace would lower the cost barrier and
all those factors surrounding it, because breast cancer is so
prevalent among women, right and especially these you know you
were talking about how you're concerned, especially about younger women,
and I think that they're the ones who would be
most interested in getting a genetic test to find out
if they are carriers of Brocco one and Broca too. Basically,

(02:38):
you can have a blood test, they'll sequence the your
DNA and if you carry an altered form of this gene,
then your chance is just skyrocket that you will have
breast cancer. Uh. You know, all women walking around today
in the world, there's a thirteen percent chance of breast cancer.
But if you're carrying this gene, you're three to seven
times more likely to developed breast cancer. And what's striking

(03:02):
about it is with this gene, you don't get an
old age. You get it long before menopause. Right, Um,
Because you're as you age, your chances for for breast
cancer steadily increases to where when you hit fifty you
have a one in fifty chance of developing breast cancer.
But like you said, if you are a Bracca car carrier,
there's a much higher chance that you will develop it

(03:23):
long before menopause. So let's talk a little bit more
about what this gene test entails and who all should
get it, because not every female should just walk into
the doctor's office and ask for the Brocca gene tests. Right.
It's too expensive to do that, um. And basically it's
not like all the can't breast cancer in the world

(03:44):
is caused by Bracca. Of the about a hud American
women learn their breast cancer each year, only five to
ten percent of those cases are hereditary, which would mean
that they had a gene that caused the disease. So
the Brocca gene test is reserved for women who would
be in these higher risk groups. And uh women for instance,

(04:05):
who might who might be more risk for having this
gene mutation would have a personal breast cancer diagnosis, a
family history of breast cancer at a young age, and
two or more close relatives, a family history and more
than one generation a male relative with breast cancer, because well,
we can't forget that while it is rare, men can
develop breast cancer as well. Um a family member bilateral

(04:28):
breast cancer as in breast cancer in both of the
breast um, and a family member who has both breasts
and a variant cancers and women of Eastern European Jewish ancestry, right,
So those are the high risk groups. And if they
so choose, a lot of people don't really want to know.
You know, essentially, you know, you find out interesting things

(04:50):
about your d n A if you choose undergo genetic testing,
you're basically finding out things you know you might have
a getting. You could go in and find out your
carrier for this gene or you're not, which is already
going to cause some maybe drama and your family if
you know your sisters a carrier and you're not. But
then you've got to decide if I am positive for
this gene, what am I going to do about it?

(05:11):
Because it's not just because you carry this gene, it's
not a guarantee you are going to have cancer, right,
It just means that you have a much higher risk
probably for developing breast cancer or ovarian cancer. And one
of the things that the Mayo Clinic really urges women
who are thinking about getting the gene testing is to

(05:32):
meet with a genetic counselor and really go over the
potential psychological impacts of getting genetic testing, because, like you said,
I mean, if you find out that you are a
carrier of this mutation, you are then going to have
to make some very tough decisions about your body, right Christen,
So let's let's talk about like, let's say you get
the positive test result that you have the Brocka gene,

(05:55):
what are your options. Let's go over those real quick, okay, um.
The first thing that you can do, which is I
guess the least invasive step that you could take would
just be increased screening. You might bump your clinical breast
exams to every six months and having mammograms every year,
and your doctor might actually recommend that you have breast
m r eyes, which are more detailed look inside of

(06:19):
the breast to to keep a um keep a closer
watch on whether any cancer could be developing. And then
at the other side of the spectrum, probably the most
invasive thing you could do would be to remove essentially
all your breast tissue in order to reduce the chance
that a tumor would develop in that tissue. So basically
you'd have a profanitive bassectomy um and this would reduce

(06:41):
your breast cancer risk by about um. And then you
also have an option of removing healthy fallopian tubes and ovaries,
which would reduce your breast cancer risk by about and
reduce your risk of developing ovarian cancer by about But Molly,
those are those are pretty extreme surgeries to make before

(07:03):
you even know that you have surgery. In this article
that we were reading in the New York times of
kind of tracking This um thirty year old woman's decision
to have a preventative mess sack to me, really gave
insight into um, how much you have to think about,
like what kind of a burden it is like talking
to your family about it. This woman, UM had a

(07:25):
pretty strong family history of breast cancer. Her mother had
breast cancer. She watched her go through chemotherapy, and she
was just terrified that she would have to go through
the same thing and ended up choosing to get the
preventative mestick to me, but it certainly wasn't you know,
an easy decision to come to rite part of the
thing you're gonna have to consider, especially if you're at
that young of age. I believe she was thirty three

(07:46):
and she was unmarried. Uh. You know, women have a
lot of issues tied up in their body about what
makes them attractive, what makes them you know, essentially feminine,
and your breasts and your ability to have children are
two of those main things. So she was dating a
guy at the time. I was trying to sort of
uh sess out how he felt about plastic surgery, and
you know, if she would have breasts that weren't real

(08:08):
that wouldn't be able to breastfeed one day. So it's
a very loaded decision to have to make based on
a you know, based on a test result that doesn't
say necessarily you're gonna have cancer, but it does say
you have an extremely high chance of having cancer. And
there is one other option. It's called chemo prevention, which
is basically where you start taking the drugs that you

(08:30):
would take if you were undergoing breast cancer treatment as
sort of a preventative measure, and then maybe one day
they hope that they will be able to do gene
therapy perhaps alter these genes. But this gets back to
why there might be a patent on this, uh, because
what can happen sometimes when you have this test is
instead of getting the positive or the negative, you have

(08:51):
an ambiguous result. Right. Um, there was a study that's
found that about ten of women undergoing bracket testing had
ambiguous or uncertain test results. They don't know whether it's
positive or negative. So that just kind of leaves them
back the drawing board. So in that case, you know,
for any other medical procedure where you get sort of

(09:12):
a you know, ambiguous result, you'll be able to have
another test. But that's sort of the problem. One of
the problems at heart of this A c l U
lawsuit is because Mary Genetics is the only company that
has this has the right to administer this test, there's
no sort of second opinion available to women, and Mary
Genetics are the only labs that are legally allowed to

(09:32):
to perform the testing. And while there haven't been any
studies that have said that uh, other labs doing kind
of backup testing would improve um the rate of false
positives and false negatives. UM, the A c l you
thinks that it should still be an open option, right,
they should be able to get that second opinion. Or

(09:53):
let's say, you know a lot of women go in
and their concern based on their family history, they're convinced
they have this gene and then they get a negative
almost like you still can't believe it until you have
some sort of further proof, right, and even if you
get a negative, we can't forget that, uh, no matter
what every woman has about a chance brockagene or no

(10:14):
brockagene of developing breast cancer. So just to review, now
that we know why you might want to take this test,
and no sort of your odds and your options. We'll
just go over real quick again, why it would matter
if this gene had a patent obviously, Uh, you know,
the treatment for breast cancer is very extreme. It's hard
on the body. Obviously, people think that if you know

(10:36):
what the breast cancer gene is, you can do a
lot of work in terms of research of prevention and cure.
And right now Myriad is basically sitting on this gene.
They're probably doing their own research, but a lot of
scientists would like to get in on that action, right
And Molly didn't didn't you read an article and CNN
that was saying that that even though a lot about
of sequenced genes are patented, the court kind of sillocking

(11:00):
this as its test case. That's where what a lot
of legal scholars think is that you know, because you
know so many women are affected by this, and you
know men have lost the spouse to this, daughters to this,
that why wouldn't you open up the breast cancer gene
when when breast cancer is so prevalent um and and
just to go over those stats again, um cancer and

(11:20):
younger women under thirty is rare, accounting for about one
and a half percent of all breast cancer cases. But
then at the age of forty our chances go up
to one and two. By fifty we've got a one
in fifty chance, and if we live to be eighty five,
the odds of developing breast cancer are one in eight.
So it's pretty staggering. This case is definitely wanted to

(11:41):
keep an eye on. We don't know how it'll shake out,
and you know who have the issue. Thing here is
also priced. They don't know if the price of the
exam would be lowered by competition on the market, but
for reasons of that quality assurance for the research. That's
why the a c l U is saying that people
should have the ability to have access to to a
gene that is already in their body. Right, Molly and

(12:03):
I think that if we were talking about breast cancer,
even if you aren't in the high risk group and
might want to consider getting the Brocka gene testing, I
think that it is worth mentioning that women in our
twenties and thirties should have a clinical breast exam as
part of a periodic health exam by health professional, preferably
every three years, and after forty that breast exam should

(12:25):
happen every year in addition to mammograms. Because a twelve
percent chance Molley is nothing that you want to gamble with.
Question not so. If you want more information on breast
cancer and the breast cancer jeans, head on over to
house stuff works dot com. And if you have any questions, comments,
or suggestions for me and Molly, we'd love to hear
from you. You can send us an email at mom

(12:47):
stuff at how stuff works dot com for more on
this and thousands of other topics. Because at how stuff
works dot com. Want more house stuff works, check out
our logs on the house of boards dot com home page.
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

(13:10):
It's ready, are you