Did you know that 10–15% of most types of cancer are due to genetic mutations that are passed down through families?¹²³⁴ Or that 1 in 200 people have a heart condition with a genetic basis?⁵⁶⁷ It can be life-changing to learn how your genes could impact your risk for cancer or heart disease.
Helping people responsibly access this information is our mission at Color. We’ve spent the last few years working to make genetic testing more accessible: bringing the price down to a tenth of what it was; dramatically simplifying the process from one that can take multiple doctor visits to one you can start at home; and providing useful information to help decide if testing is right for you.
One outstanding challenge has been the overwhelming number of choices you have to make when deciding to learn about your genes — which ones should you look at? How many? You shouldn’t need an advanced degree in genetics! Starting today, we’re making this simpler with Color Extended: one complete experience, including hereditary cancer and hereditary heart health, plus two great new features.
When it comes to medications, one size doesn’t fit all
Your genes (along with other factors like your weight or other medications you’re taking) can influence how your body processes certain medications, and the chances they will work effectively for you or cause side effects. Color now analyzes a number of these genes, starting with two that can impact your response to certain mental health medications like Zoloft®, Paxil®, and Lexapro®. In the months to come, we’ll add results for additional genes that can help you and your doctor learn about your body’s response to medications for pain, heart conditions, and more.
Explore common traits that make you unique
Not all genetic variants impact your risk for health conditions or how you respond to medications. Some simply influence your traits, like appearance or taste preferences. With Color’s new Discovery feature, you can learn what your genes say about your earwax type, whether you like cilantro, and more.*
Unlike Color’s other tests, Discovery doesn’t provide clinical results. The world’s understanding of how genes impact traits is based on a body of science that continues to change, and it’s less accurate for some ethnicities or genetic ancestries than others. But we believe this knowledge can be a valuable tool in helping us all better understand and appreciate how our genes make us unique and can impact our lives. In the spirit of advancing science, we’ll invite Color clients to tell us how well the information we share matches their actual experience.
We hope you’re as excited as we are about these new features. We believe they’re an important step in our mission to help people lead the healthiest lives that science and medicine allow.
Take a look for yourself today!
Wendy, VP of Product and User Experience at Color
Footnotes
*Discovery is not yet available in New York or outside the US. Once it is, we’ll let you know. It will be available for no additional cost or work on your end if you purchased a Color product after Discovery launched.
References
¹ Tung N, Battelli C, Allen B, et al. Frequency of mutations in individuals with breast cancer referred for BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing using next-generation sequencing with a 25-gene panel. Cancer. January 2015;121(1):25–33.
² Pal T, Permuth-Wey J, Betts JA, et al. BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations account for a large proportion of ovarian carcinoma cases. Cancer. December 2005;104(12):2807–16.
³ Risch HA, McLaughlin JR, Cole DE, et al. Prevalence and penetrance of germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in a population series of 649 women with ovarian cancer. Am J Hum Genet. March 2001;68(3):700–10.
⁴ Claus EB, Risch N, Thompson WD, et al. The calculation of breast cancer risk for women with a first degree family history of ovarian cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. November 1993;28(2):115–20.
⁵ Semsarian C. Update on the Diagnosis and Management of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Heart Lung Circ. 2018;27(3):276–279.
⁶ Semsarian C, Ingles J, Maron MS, Maron BJ. New perspectives on the prevalence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2015;65(12):1249–54.
⁷ Fteropoulli T, Stygall J, Cullen S, Deanfield J, Newman SP. Quality of life of adult congenital heart disease patients: a systematic review of the literature. Cardiol Young. 2013;23(4):473–85.
