Breast cancer susceptibility genomics: current status, clinical utility and future perspectives

In this seminar, Tú will present the current status, clinical utility and future perspectives of genomic testing for breast cancer susceptibility.

DR TÚ NGUYEN-DUMONT
HEAD, CLINICAL GENOMICS LABORATORY
MONASH UNIVERSITY

Recent technological advances have accelerated the impact of cancer susceptibility genomics research on clinical genetics practice. Gene-panel tests targeting 20-25 genes are now routinely offered in clinical settings. However, for some of these genes, the evidence for clinical translation is very thin.
Several recent large scale studies, including ours, have generated risk estimates that have improved the clinical utility of gene-panel testing for breast cancer predisposition. Population-based precise estimates of risk are particularly relevant at a time when studies piloting population genomic screening for breast and other cancers are emerging in Australia and internationally.

In this seminar, Tú will present the current status, clinical utility and future perspectives of genomic testing for breast cancer susceptibility.

Dr Tú Nguyen-Dumont is a molecular cancer genomicist and bioinformatician. She undertook her PhD training at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon and received her PhD from Université Claude Bernard (Lyon, France). Tú was awarded a Susan Komen PostDoctoral Fellowship, which enabled her to move to Australia and join Melbourne University in 2011. In 2017, she received a Career Development Fellowship from the National Breast Cancer Foundation and joined Monash University. She is now the Head of the Clinical Genomics Lab, in Precision Medicine and a 2022 Victorian Cancer Agency Mid-career Research Fellow. Her research focuses on leveraging genomics and bioinformatics to better understand inherited risk factors for cancer predisposition. She is particularly interested in breast and prostate cancer, genomics technologies, genetic variant interpretation and classification.