DNA analysis aimed at revealing the propensity to these or other diseases, has no practical meaning, warn Australian doctors.

A group of genetic scientists from the Center for Clinical Studies at the University of Queensland published their appeal in the journal PLoS Medicine. Experts urge not to overestimate the importance of genetic tests, which are extremely rare to inform patients of any useful information.

According to the authors of the appeal, well-known risk factors: smoking, sedentary lifestyle, age, high blood pressure, and family history provide a much more accurate and reliable prognosis of the patient's predilection for a particular disease than analysis of his genome.

"Studies of diabetes, heart disease and various cancers have revealed a large number of genes [the presence or absence of which] is associated with a risk of developing these diseases," said Wayne Hall. - However, the responsibility of any of these genes for increasing the risk is often very low. This is not the information from which you can take some action ".

"Virtually useless".

Currently, long-term studies are under way, during which physicians track large groups of patients with a mutated gene, trying to understand the mechanisms of their activation, which lead to the development of diseases.

However, no fundamentally significant patterns have yet been identified, emphasizes Hall.

"In general, genetic information does not improve the quality of the prognosis [of the state of health] made in view of existing risk factors," says the scientist.

"Knowing that the patient smokes, as well as his pressure, sex, age and medical history of family members, we can predict with a high probability of the development of certain diseases - usually more accurately than using genetic information," he concludes..

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