{"entity":{"id":"idea-prev-traceback-deceased-probands","kind":"idea","name":"Go back to families of women who died of ovarian cancer and offer BRCA testing","aka":[],"tldr":"Women who died of ovarian cancer without ever having BRCA testing leave relatives who are otherwise unreachable. Retesting archived tumour tissue and contacting families, piloted on 2,000 cases from the past 15 years, would find carriers before they develop cancer; US pilots show it is feasible and ethically acceptable.","summary":"Women who died of ovarian cancer without BRCA testing leave carriers in their families undetected, so this idea retests their archived tumour tissue and contacts relatives, scaling traceback to ovarian, young-onset breast and pancreatic cancer cases from the past 15 years. US pilots show feasibility and ethical acceptability, BRCA is common in ovarian cancer, and relatives of deceased probands are otherwise unreachable. The aim is to find previously unknown carriers before they develop cancer. The test is a regional traceback pilot on 2,000 archived cases. At early-clinical maturity it addresses the bottleneck Inherited risk is mostly unidentified and links to germline testing and BRCA.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Inherited risk is mostly unidentified): Childers et al., National estimates of genetic testing in women with breast or ovarian cancer (JCO 2017)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2017.73.6314"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["ovarian"],"sections":["prevention"],"technologies":["germline-testing"],"targets":["brca"],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-hereditary-risk"],"keyPapers":["paper-childers-j-clin-oncol"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Traceback identifies at least one previously unknown carrier per ten deceased probands tested.","rationale":"BRCA prevalence in ovarian cancer is about 15%, and relatives of deceased probands are otherwise unreachable.","test":"Run a regional traceback pilot on 2,000 archived cases.","maturity":"early-clinical","actor":"clinic","cost":"medium","horizonYears":3},"route":"/ideas/idea-prev-traceback-deceased-probands/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"ovarian","kind":"cancer","name":"Ovarian cancer","route":"/cancers/ovarian/"}],"section":[{"id":"prevention","kind":"section","name":"Prevention & Risk","route":"/fronts/prevention/"}],"technology":[{"id":"germline-testing","kind":"technology","name":"Germline (hereditary) testing","route":"/technologies/germline-testing/"}],"target":[{"id":"brca","kind":"target","name":"BRCA1 / BRCA2 (HRD)","route":"/targets/brca/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-hereditary-risk","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Inherited risk is mostly unidentified","route":"/bottlenecks/b-hereditary-risk/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-childers-j-clin-oncol","kind":"paper","name":"National Estimates of Genetic Testing in Women With a History of Breast or Ovarian Cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-childers-j-clin-oncol/"}]}}