Prevent cancer according to your genetic risk
Together with Antegenes, Meliva offers an innovative option for personalised cancer prevention, based on assessing genetic predisposition.
Prevent cancer according to your genetic risk
Together with Antegenes, Meliva offers an innovative option for personalised cancer prevention, based on assessing genetic predisposition. The service allows you to assess your risk level for breast cancer, prostate cancer, bowel cancer, or skin melanoma, and take preventive measures accordingly.
Genetic predisposition is assessed using polygenic risk score technology, which accounts for the combined effect of hundreds or thousands of genetic variants. Genetic risk testing forms the basis for building a precise, individual prevention plan — aimed at reducing risk or catching cancer at an early stage, when treatment is most effective. The test’s medical report answers key questions such as: what your genetic risk level is, at what age and how to begin screening, what you can do yourself to reduce your cancer risk, and which signs to watch for.
A breakthrough step for Estonian healthcare
“If someone comes to a doctor wanting to prevent cancer, that’s now possible within Estonian healthcare today,” said Meliva Chief Medical Officer Dr Andreas Abel. “The introduction of the polygenic risk score allows us to assess genetic predisposition to cancer more precisely than before, taking cancer prevention to a new level and making it more personal,” Dr Abel explained.
“We’re glad that, in partnership with Antegenes, Meliva can now identify individuals with an elevated genetic risk and ensure they receive consistent, ongoing health monitoring,” Dr Abel said. He explained that such individuals may need earlier or more frequent screening than standard practice, to reduce their risk or catch a condition at an early, still-treatable stage. “This is a breakthrough step for the development of personalised medicine and for healthcare in Estonia,” he believes.
Cancer is often preventable
Antegenes founder Dr Peeter Padrik, who has close to 30 years of experience in oncology, believes the best disease is the one that never occurs. “Scientific analyses show that 40% of cancers would be preventable,” said Dr Padrik. “At the same time, some tumours aren’t preventable, whatever we do. Here, timely and as-early-as-possible detection makes a huge difference. In cancer treatment, every delay shortens a patient’s life expectancy, yet in Estonia, cancer is often diagnosed too late — for example, only around 35% of bowel cancers and 49% of breast cancers were diagnosed at an early stage in 2018, and by 2021, those figures were even lower,” Dr Padrik noted.
According to Dr Peeter Padrik, today’s screening models are outdated — applied the same way to everyone, based only on a person’s sex and age. He explained that, in reality, cancer risk varies significantly from person to person, which means cancer prevention needs to be tailored to individual risk assessments too. “Together with Meliva, we’re offering the most advanced cancer prevention available in Estonia — one based on the principle of starting prevention well before cancer might develop, and taking into account a person’s individual risk assessment and medical recommendations for reducing that risk.”
For health-conscious people
The service is recommended for all women and men, regardless of whether cancer has occurred in the family before. The recommended age to start is between 30 and 40, by which point cancer risk can already be meaningful.
That said, if the family has a history of hereditary cancer cases, it may be worth first consulting a geneticist.
Giving a sample is simple
Assessing genetic risk is a simple, convenient procedure. It involves taking a swab sample from the inside of the cheek, which is sent to a lab for DNA analysis. Results are available within six weeks via the national health portal (Terviseportaal). The result is based on polygenic risk score technology, which accounts for the combined effect of hundreds or thousands of genetic variants.
Read more about the service.
Appointments for the service can be booked through Meliva’s booking system.
