Steven Joffe, MD, Founders Professor Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Professor of Pediatrics, Interim Chair, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Seminar on Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genetics

Precision medicine has advanced furthest in oncology, where testing of tumor genomes for somatic variants that might inform targeted therapies has become routine in many settings. Questions frequently arise about whether variants detected in tumor DNA might be of germline origin, yet paradigms for evaluating the germline are poorly developed. This talk will describe the frequency of clinically important germline variants in patients with cancer, the relationship between evaluation of somatic and germline genomes, and the systemic challenges that cancer medicine faces in incorporating considerations of germline risk into routine cancer care.

Monday, March 15, 2021, 12:00-1:00pm EST

All seminars for the 2020-21 academic year will be held online.

Register with Janee Frankel at Janee.Frankel@nyspi.columbia.edu to receive a zoom link.