Approach
In October 2024, Bright Pink proudly announced a $3.5 million legacy gift to establish the Bright Pink Preventive Risk Outreach And Cascade Testing (PROACT) Program at Stanford Medicine.
PROACT is an online platform that provides personalized cancer genetic risk information to family members of those with hereditary cancer risk. Individuals who have had a pathogenic variant identified on genetic testing can invite their first-degree and second-degree relatives to the platform to learn about genetic cancer risk and consider low-cost at-home genetic testing.
While most cancer is due to random changes in our DNA/genes that happen over time, a small portion of cancer is hereditary and is caused by a pathogenic variant (sometimes called a mutation) in a gene that is typically inherited from a parent. This pathogenic variant can significantly increase risk for cancer over an individual’s lifetime. This is called hereditary cancer.
Once a pathogenic variant is identified in a family member, it is recommended that other close family members such as siblings, adult children, parents, and aunts and uncles also consider genetic testing. This is called cascade testing. The purpose of cascade testing is to provide personalized cancer screening and prevention recommendations to prevent or reduce the burden of cancer. Unfortunately, as many as 43-85% of individuals with a pathogenic variant in their family have not had genetic testing.
The PROACT solution is to simplify the process for cascade testing via easily accessed quality online information and optional low cost at-home genetic testing.
Have a question about PROACT? See our FAQs for more information.