A continually updated companion to the evidence
The PROMPT Study explainers cover what stays constant — how panel testing works, what variants mean, why registries matter. This is where the field's moving parts live: new articles, study news, visual walkthroughs, and questions from the community, all written in the same plain, mechanism-first register.
Reference LibraryWhere the evergreen guides end, this begins
Our explainer guides are built to age slowly. The biology of a BRCA1 variant, the chemistry of extracting DNA from a saliva sample, the statistical logic behind a longitudinal registry — these do not change month to month, so the guides that describe them stay put.
But the genetics of hereditary cancer is an active research field. Variant classifications get reclassified as evidence accumulates. Panels add genes. Registries publish. Guidelines shift. This library is where we track that motion: short, sourced pieces that note what changed and explain why it matters, without overstating any single finding. Nothing here sells a product or refers you to a vendor — it is reference material, written the way a hospital patient-education department would write it.
Four ways to keep current
Each archive serves a different reading mode — from deep explainers to quick visual summaries to open discussion.
Articles
In-depth explainers that go a layer deeper than the core guides: how a specific gene confers risk, how variant reclassification works, what a polygenic risk score does and does not tell you. Written for a reader who wants the mechanism, not just the headline.
Browse articlesNews
Brief, sourced notes on developments in hereditary-cancer genetics — registry publications, guideline updates, panel changes, and notable findings. Each item links its source so you can read the primary material yourself.
See the latest newsWeb Stories
Visual, step-through walkthroughs of the concepts that are easier to see than to read: the path of a sample from cheek to sequence, the difference between a single-gene and a multi-gene panel, how a registry follows a cohort over time.
View web storiesCommunity Forum
An open space for patients, families, counselors, and students to ask questions and compare understanding. Moderated for accuracy, kept free of commercial pitches — a place to work through a result or a concept in plain language.
Join the discussionMechanism first, conclusion second
Every piece in this library follows the same discipline the PROMPT Study itself modeled: describe how something works before stating what it means. We explain why a variant of uncertain significance cannot yet guide a clinical decision, rather than simply labeling it as such. We show how a registry's longitudinal design turns scattered cases into usable evidence, rather than asserting that registries are valuable.
We cite the biology and the data. We do not hype, and we do not sell. When the evidence is mixed, we say so. The goal is a reader — whether a worried patient or a practicing genetic counselor — who leaves understanding the reasoning, not just the answer.
Reading this library well
A short path through the material, from foundation to frontier.
Start with the explainers
If a term is new, the evergreen guides define it from first principles — what a gene panel is, what hereditary risk means, how samples become sequence data.
Layer in the articles
Once the foundation is set, the article archive goes deeper on individual genes, testing methods, and interpretation — the nuance the introductory guides leave out.
Track what's changing
The news archive flags developments — a reclassified variant, a new guideline — so your understanding stays aligned with current evidence.
Bring your questions
When something still doesn't click, the forum lets you ask it directly and see how others have worked through the same uncertainty.
Have a question we haven't answered yet?
This library grows from the questions readers bring. If there's a concept, a variant, or a step in the testing process you'd like explained, tell us — we write to fill the gaps that matter to patients, families, and clinicians.