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Vol. 50 No. 4 (2014)
Original Articles
2015-01-30

Incidental findings, genetic screening and the challenge of personalisation

Authors

Carlo Petrini, Enrico Alleva

Keywords: bioethics, genetic screening, incidental findings, research

Abstract

Genetic tests frequently produce more information than is initially expected. Several documents have addressed this issue and offer suggestions regarding how this informa-tion should be managed and, in particular, concerning the expedience of revealing (or not revealing) it to the persons concerned. While the approaches to the management of these incidental findings (IFs) vary, it is usually recommended that the information be disclosed if there is confirmed clinical utility and the possibility of treatment or preven-tion. However, this leaves unsolved some fundamental issues such as the different ways of interpreting “clinical utility”, countless sources of uncertainty and varying ways of defining the notion of “incidental”. Guidelines and other reference documents can offer indications to those responsible for managing IFs but should not be allowed to relieve researchers and healthcare professionals of their responsibilities.
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Authors

Carlo Petrini

Enrico Alleva

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite
Petrini, C., & Alleva, E. (2015). Incidental findings, genetic screening and the challenge of personalisation. Annali dell’Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, 50(4), 312–316. Retrieved from https://annali.iss.it/index.php/anna/article/view/87
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