#2 IN THE SERIES “BRINGING PRECISION MEDICINE TO EVERYONE”
Inherited Cancer Risk: What Every Patient and Clinician Needs to Know with Ellen Matloff
When patients understand their inherited risk for cancer, they’re empowered to take action—often before cancer has a chance to take hold. In this second episode of our series Bringing Precision Medicine to Everyone, host Karan Cushman is joined by two trusted experts, Ellen Matloff and Dr. Angella Charnot-Katsikas. Together, they provide clear, practical guidance on how patients and clinicians can identify inherited cancer risk early—and take steps to address it.
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Ellen Matloff is a nationally recognized genetic counselor, founder and CEO of My Gene Counsel, and a leading voice in digital health and patient-centered genomics. She founded and led the Yale Cancer Genetic Counseling Program and was a plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case that overturned gene patenting.
Dr. Angella Charnot-Katsikas is Chief Medical Officer at Palmetto GBA and a molecular diagnostics expert who helps guide coverage decisions through her work in precision medicine policy.
They share compelling stories that bring the science to life. Ellen reflects on one of her first BRCA1-positive patients—a healthy young mother who chose preventive surgery based on a powerful family history of cancer and a determination to break the cycle. Dr. Katsikas offers her own experience as both a pre-vivor and survivor, whose early diagnosis was only possible because of proactive testing and screening guided by her family history.
The episode also explains why many patients still miss these opportunities—due to limited awareness, inconsistent risk assessments, and systemic barriers in access. The guests highlight the limitations of consumer tests like 23andMe and the critical role of genetic counselors in interpreting results and guiding decisions.
They offer actionable strategies for integrating family history collection and risk assessment into routine care, including the use of digital tools in busy or resource-limited settings. Reimbursement challenges are discussed, alongside encouraging progress toward making precision medicine standard of care.
Special thanks to our good friend Dr. Kashyap Patel and the No ONe Left Alone initiative for collaborating with us on this series. Our goal with Bringing Precision Medicine to Everyone is to equip patients, caregivers and care teams with the knowledge and tools needed to deliver the best of modern cancer care– no matter where a patient lives.
Download the episode transcript here.
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About Our Guests
Ellen T. Matloff, MS, CGC
CEO, My Gene Counsel
Ellen Matloff is a certified genetic counselor and the CEO of My Gene Counsel, a digital health company that provides scalable, updating genetic counseling solutions for health systems, population and research studies, pharma, and precision medicine partners. Matloff founded the Yale Cancer Genetic Counseling program, served as its director and a faculty member at Yale School of Medicine for 18 years, and was an individual plaintiff in the 2013 SCOTUS BRCA gene patent case. She serves as the Forbes.com contributor on genetic counseling, genetic testing, and digital health.
Angella Charnot-Katsikas, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Palmetto GBA
Dr. Angella Charnot-Katsikas is a physician expert in molecular diagnostics. She is board-certified in Clinical Pathology, Medical Microbiology, and Molecular Genetic Pathology. She served as an Associate Professor of Pathology and director of various clinical laboratories at the University of Chicago.
In 2020, Dr. Charnot-Katsikas joined the MolDx program as a Chief Medical Officer for Palmetto GBA, where she writes policy that helps move the field of precision medicine. She is also a past president of the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists. She maintains an academic position as an Associate Professor of Pathology at Loyola University Chicago.
Her passion is education around the appropriate use of genomic testing. And as a breast cancer survivor, her hope is that more patients will benefit from the revolutionary tools that exist in the world of precision medicine today and in the future.