{"id":2055,"date":"2025-10-14T05:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/2055\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T05:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:46:14","slug":"san-antonio-family-with-history-of-medullary-thyroid-cancer-calls-genetic-testing-a-lifesaver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/2055\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio family with history of medullary thyroid cancer calls genetic testing a \u2018lifesaver\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Genetic testing<\/a> offered the Garcia family a chance at catching cancer in an earlier stage and treating it before the cancer took on an aggressive form for Martin Garcia, Sr. and nearly every person in his family who came after him. <\/p>\n

While thyroid cancer is typically one of the less alarming cancers, according to Dr. Santillan-Gomez<\/a> with Texas Oncology, medullary thyroid cancer is genetic, can become aggressive and more difficult to treat.<\/p>\n

The Garcia family knows the genetic mutation that can cause medullary thyroid cancer very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I came about my diagnosis was last year, I had a bump on my neck,\u201d Martin Garcia Sr. said. \u201cBy the time September came around last year, it was diagnosed that it was aggressive, and I needed surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia Sr. and Martin Garcia Jr. are both recovering from surgery to remove their thyroid glands less than two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a surgery they faced together and at the same time. They said they wouldn\u2019t have known they needed to go under the knife without genetic testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went to go see the oncologist, that\u2019s the first thing they wanted to check \u2014 was genetic testing \u2014because it could be a gene in the family,\u201d Garcia Sr. said.<\/p>\n

Sara Mokhtary-Myers<\/a>, a genetic counselor with Texas Oncology, described the process and importance of genetic testing. <\/p>\n

Mokhtary-Myers said it\u2019s a simple blood test. Blood is taken to the lab for genetic testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for changes or mutations that an individual was born with,\u201d Mokhtary-Myers said. \u201cHaving one of these mutations can significantly increase the risk for someone to develop cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Garcia Sr., the gene was prevalent. He was instructed to tell his family they should all get tested, as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a pretty big family, so every person that tests positive, all their kids will have to be tested,\u201d Garcia Jr. said.<\/p>\n

Overall, surgery has been successful for their family, given how early everyone else took their tests after Martin Sr.\u2019s diagnosis. Santillan-Gomez has performed the family\u2019s thyroid surgeries. <\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Santillan has been a blessing with how good he\u2019s been with us,\u201d Garcia Jr. said. \u201cI think he knows our family very well at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always like to ask patients the three Ws,\u201d Mokhtary-Myers said. \u201cWe want to know: who has had cancer. That\u2019s the first W. When they had the cancer. So, \u2018how old were they when they were diagnosed\u2019 and where that cancer was.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mokhtary-Myers also said she wants to debunk the myth that genetic testing is expensive. She told KSAT that many of their patients pay less than $250 for genetic testing. <\/p>\n

The Garcia family also said that they were able to get genetic testing done for free within 90 days of another family\u2019s diagnosis through their insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evolution of genetic testing now over the last years, it\u2019s more accessible to the patients and to the general population,\u201d Santillan-Gomez said.<\/p>\n

The Garcia family said they wanted to share their story to inspire other families to connect and have conversations with each other about their health. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s always a scary thing when it comes to cancer, any type,\u201d Garcia Jr. said. \u201cOur genetic testing, yeah, definitely it is a lifesaver \u2026 The longer you wait, the longer you don\u2019t talk about your health with your family, there\u2019s more complications.\u201d<\/p>\n

More recent local health coverage on KSAT: <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Genetic testing offered the Garcia family a chance at catching cancer in an earlier stage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2622,584,82,84,83,2621,2623],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-cancer","tag-health","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-texas-oncology","tag-thyroid-cancer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}