14 | DECEMBER 16 • 2021

J

Family, a program of
the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan
Detroit in West Bloomfield, is
lowering the financial barrier
to those who want to learn
if they are genetically predis-
posed to certain hereditary
cancers or diseases through its
new JScreen Detroit program
that launched Nov. 6.
Without health insurance,
costs of reproductive genetic
and cancer screening can run
as high as $600. But thanks
to generous grants and other
funding, the JScreen Detroit
program will heavily subsidize
the processing costs of the test
kits, which are sent to JScreen’s
headquarters at the Emory
School of Medicine in Atlanta.
For those who have any
health insurance, a $149
reproductive genetic screen-
ing will cost $18; $199 cancer
screening will cost $36. The
two tests, which normally
cost $299, will cost $54 with
the JScreen Detroit program.
JFamily will work with those
without health insurance to
apply for financial aid.
A JScreen Detroit screen-
ing is as easy as depositing
saliva into a cup provided
by a mailed kit. Samples are
mailed to Emory University
and screened for more than
200 genetic diseases, including
those commonly found in the
Jewish population (Ashkenazi,
Sephardic and Mizrahi), as
well as other populations.
Testing may reveal that you
may be at risk for developing
symptoms of a
genetic condition.
Stephanie Erez,
director of young
children and fam-
ily engagement
at the JCC, said
JScreen Detroit is

backed by a committee whose
members are well-versed in
reproductive, genetic or cancer
screening due to their profes-
sional background or personal
experience. In the first 18
months of the program, Erez
hopes to complete screening
for 500 people, and the pro-
gram is spreading the word
to local Jewish agencies and
congregations.
“JFamily is there for the
community during life’s most
beautiful and most challeng-
ing times,
” said
Mikki Frank,
JFamily senior
director. “We
provide support,
education and
connection.
Providing this
resource for health screening,
and then putting those who
did the screening in touch
with additional resources after
they receive those results, fits
within that lane.
”
Erez added that the screen-
ing is only the beginning.
JFamily can be a guide to
seeking additional educational
and support resources for
those who received positive
test results, such as designating
genetic counselors, she said.

HEIGHTENED BREAST
CANCER RISK
Dana Zakalik, the corpo-
rate director of the Nancy
and James
Grosfeld Cancer
Genetics Center
at Beaumont
Health and an
oncologist with a
specialty in breast
cancer and can-
cer genetics, said among
Ashkenazi Jews, there is a one
in 40 chance that a person
carries either the BRCA1 or

JScreen Detroit offers affordable
genetic screening for cancer,
diseases and more.

Armed with
Knowledge

Stephanie
Erez

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

Dr. Dana
Zakalik

Mikki Frank