polygenic risk scores

New ‘polygenic’ screening techniques open a Pandora’s Box of ethical issues.
 

Polygenic risk scores are proving to be a powerful tool in the era of genomic medicine. Their application has grown substantially – from predicting common diseases to enhancing risk modelling for various types of cancers. What does this mean for insurers?
 

The practice of preventive medicine requires estimating the risks of developing chronic diseases so as to enable risk-mitigating measures such as diet, lifestyle and medical interventions to be implemented. 

Significant and rapid progress in genetics research and data analytics is currently enabling an unprecedented expansion in science’s understanding of the genetic underpinnings of rare and common diseases. Large-scale cohort studies such as the UK Biobank are helping scientists build powerful prognostic models for a number of diseases, including breast cancer and coronary artery disease, and hastening the development of a new tool for quantifying the inheritability of common diseases: Polygenic risk scores.

The wider implications of recent advances in genetics and genomics, including polygenic risk scores, need to be considered in the context of the protection industry. RGA's Heather Lund and Richard Russell explore the topic in depth in the Journal of the Association of Insurance Medicine of Japan.