Dementia: Screening
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of expanding genetic for (a) the APOE4 gene and (b) other dementia-related risk factors in the NHS.
Answered by Dr Zubir Ahmed
The Pharmacogenomics and Medicine Optimisation NHS Genomic Network of Excellence convened a multidisciplinary meeting in November 2023 to support an impact assessment of potential testing for APOE-4 for prediction of risk of adverse events for lecanemab and donanemab. This group considered the evidence for expanding genomic testing for the APOE gene variants, including to inform other dementia related risk factors and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to offer genomic testing for the APOE gene variants as part of routine dementia care, risk assessment, or to first degree relatives of those with an already identified APOE variant to inform risk estimates of developing future Alzheimer's disease.
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