[Editorial] Meeting the need for germline testing

Germline genetic testing for pathogenic mutations in people diagnosed with cancer is recommended for several cancer types and has been shown to have a positive effect on survival. The US NCCN guidelines recommend that all, or a high proportion of, patients with a personal history of breast, ovarian, endometrial, pancreatic, colorectal, and prostate cancer should undergo germline testing. Yet, in a study by Kurian and colleagues published on June 5, 2023, in JAMA, only 6·8% of patients diagnosed with one of seven cancers in California and Georgia, USA, between 2013 and 2019, underwent genetic testing; the highest frequency of testing was in male breast cancer (50%), followed by ovarian cancer (39%) and female breast cancer (26%).