Via Christi clinic to assess cancer risk will open Sept. 1

Via Christi plans to open a new Cancer Outreach and Risk Assessment center on Sept. 1.

The clinic will serve as a dedicated area for patients and their families to receive a cancer risk assessment based on an extensive study of their family history. Then, if a patient’s family history qualifies, the patient would receive a genetic test to see whether he or she carries a gene, or set of genes, that would make him or her more prone to cancer.

Some physicians currently offer this kind of assessment and genetic testing, but many of the people receiving the in-depth assessments and tests already have cancer.

Pavan Reddy, an oncologist with Cancer Center of Kansas and co-medical director for the new clinic, said the problem lies with testing the rest of a patient’s family.

“We don’t have time to counsel the whole family as much,” Reddy said. “That’s where the genetic counselors will help so much. It’s not that everyone needs to be tested, but you can sit down with them and say, ‘What’s the best way to move forward?’ ”

The risk assessment process can be time consuming, sometimes taking more than an hour to go over the family history alone. Patty Tenofsky, a breast care surgery specialist at Via Christi and co-medical director for the new clinic, said many physicians and specialists don’t have time for these kinds of appointments on top of current caseloads.

“It’s become a specialty of its own,” she said about genetic counseling.

Currently, the closest clinic dedicated to this type of work is at the University of Kansas Cancer Center in Kansas City.

“A lot of patients don’t want to go,” Tenofsky said. “It’s a long trip to go to a counseling session regarding their genetics. It’s inconvenient for both the patient and physician.”

The program will be housed on the second floor of Via Christi Hospital St. Francis, 929 St. Francis North, and will be open two days a week to start. The clinic will begin scheduling patients July 15, even though it won’t open until September.

Patients will be able to submit initial risk assessment surveys online or call Via Christi’s health connection line at 316-689-5700 for a brief phone assessment. If patients meet certain risk criteria from the initial assessment, they would then go to the clinic for a more in-depth review of their family history. Then, based on that in-person assessment, a counselor would decide whether a patient needs to take a genetic test for lab review.

After the assessment and testing, nurses or social workers would follow up with patients as frequently as needed to make sure they receive the right medical attention.

Maggie Ward, an oncology nurse, will serve as the program coordinator at the clinic. Ward will provide basic genetic counseling on site, but genetic counselors from other Ascension hospitals will meet via video calls with patients who have more complicated family histories.

Shobana Kubendran, a board-certified genetic counselor for the KU School of Medicine in Wichita, said she is glad Kansans will have more access to board-certified genetic counselors.

“We are trained to take a much more comprehensive family history than what might be done in a checklist,” she said.

Kubendran also said that right now, the state is underserved for genetics.

The clinic should improve access to these services, but it’s still up to each patient to know his or her family history well enough for a full assessment.

Suzy Hacker, 50, has ovarian cancer and the familial gene associated with it. She was diagnosed at Stage 4, or the most advanced stage, in July 2014 and just recently found out about her family cancer history on her dad’s side, which could have allowed her to catch the cancer at an earlier stage.

She said even though the clinic might not have helped her – given she didn’t know her family history – the clinic could help people like her two daughters. Both have been tested for the familial breast cancer gene.

“If they could’ve caught mine sooner, maybe it wouldn’t have got to Stage 4,” Hacker said.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 7:48 PM with the headline "Via Christi clinic to assess cancer risk will open Sept. 1."