Genetic ‘make-up’ marks new predictive profiling

When reviewing some of the media reports regarding the phenomenal advances in the medical fraternity, the concept of consumer profiling becomes significant.

However, as consumer profiling has become a ‘science of sorts’, various genetic studies have managed to identify specific markers in our DNA that could potentially cause certain diseases during the course of our lives.

Linking associations

Just as advisers are able to pin-point exactly what their target market’s preferences and behaviours entail, so has the medical world too by linking specific genes to specific diseases.

Scientists from the University College of London in the UK, for example, have found that women who had a particular version of the BRCA1 gene (mutations in these genes) were far more likely to have heart attacks and strokes. Also, the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes have long been associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

In another study, researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute in the UK have found a genetic signature that is common to five different types of cancers including colon, lung, breast, stomach and endometrial cancers. This shows that a number of aspects linked to the human body are being demystified at a rapid rate.

Determining factors

Treatments for various illnesses are thus being ‘personalised’ more and more according to peoples’ unique risk profiles. This means that some of the traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation could be tweaked or might even become absolute in future. One example of a new generation treatment includes immunotherapy that uses the body’s own immune system to attack cancer infected cells and prevent the spread of the disease in the body.

Having access to patients’ genetic ‘make-up’ and understanding each patient’s potential risk associated with this could be very useful for doctors. Knowing in advance before a patient notices symptoms linked to a disease gives both the patient and doctor a major advantage in treating the disease in its early stages.

This is where aspects like early pay-outs come into play when advisers and clients consider critical illness benefits. It has become a non-negotiable for critical illness benefits to make provision for early pay-outs in line with early detection trends and to offer clients unsurpassed breadth of cover.

The ability to gain control over diseases that previously resulted in certain death, implies that people’s lifespan might increase.

The vast majority of individuals have a set of genes that will allow them to reach their late 80s and early 90s but their lifestyle choices and behaviour does play a role. In fact, to live to about the age of 90, 20 to 30 percent of that is going to be genetics, and 70 to 80 percent is going to be lifestyle choices and behaviours.

Unique longevity benefit

In a 2012 study published by the PLOS ONE journal, Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine and geriatrics at Boston University in the US, looked for genetic signatures of exceptional longevity in the genomes of 801 centenarians. No single gene stood out, but the top 281 genetic variants that were most associated with old age served as a sort of constellation of genetic markers that were strongly associated with extreme old age.

In light of this, it has never been more important to incorporate longevity into a client’s financial plan by choosing benefits that will enable clients to maintain their quality of life without having to worry about outliving their capital.

One insurer got this right with a unique longevity benefit that provides a continuous pay-out to clients for as long as their clients live because their clients do not have to select the benefit or the amount of cover that is required. As a result, the constant concern around having enough cover when it is needed most is almost eliminated completely.