I just wanted to post an update — I went to my oncologist, who assured me that CYP2D6 is a hot topic at the moment. She said, however, that changing her treatment based on CYP2D6 wasn’t according to the standard for treatment, so she would need information on how to respond to test results .
Fortunately, I remembered to take in international guidelines on CYP2D6 and tamoxifen therapy, and also a sample report from the testing agency. She was happy to go with it, but suggested I look at Australian Clinical Labs for their report since they were in the same building.
I rang and spoke to about 6 people in a round robin pass the parcel at Australian Clinical Labs. They didn’t seem to understand that as a patient I would want to see what the sample report for a non-Medicare test would look like. In the end, although it was $100 instead of the $197 at SonicGenetics, I went with what I could see with Sonic, their Pharmacogenetics test, which includes body’s ability to metabolise tamoxifen as well as other drugs.
I don’t think it is a very common test yet. There aren’t many collection agencies for SonicGenetics around Melbourne. They are associated with Melbourne Pathology but not all their sites collect blood for the CYP2D6 test. I’ll get the results in about 2 weeks. I’ll be curious to see what it says, just in general!