A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has revealed that although direct-to-consumer genetic testing promises help in giving vital insight into the DNA of a person, the tests are prone to mistakes and they often give misleading information.
Gregory Kutz, managing director of forensic audits and special investigations at the GAO, shared the results of his investigation with a congressional committee today. He investigated the companies that provide direct-to-consumer genetics tests that provide an assessment of the person's genes using the saliva.
The undercover investigators used DNA from five donors and sent out two DNA samples from each donor -- one with factual descriptions of donor age and ethnicity, the other with fictional descriptions.
Navigenics, 23andMe, and Pathway Genomics were present for Kutz' testimony for rebuttal, while no one from deCODE Genetics was present to give a statement before the committee.
“The results, as well as the interpretation of the results provided by the company, were "misleading and of little or no practical use to consumers," Kutz told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations,.”Sixty-eight percent of the time our donors received different predictions for the same disease," Kutz added.
"We're taking things that are very difficult to interpret. Except in extremely rare circumstances, when you're found to have a gene associated with [for example], a sort of cancer, that background risk is pretty low. What adding to that [risk] means, is really up for grabs," noted Nancy King, co-director of the Center for Bioethics, Health, and Society at Wake Forest University.
