Exclusive] Singapore looks to add hereditary cancers, kidney diseases in expanded genetic testing
PRECISE confirms that hereditary cancers and kidney-related genetic diseases are under review for potential national genetic testing programme expansion.
Asia
Population Health
By
Adam Ang | December 7, 2025 | 8:46 PM
Photo: Consortium for Clinical Research and Innovation, Singapore/LinkedIn
Singapore is studying more conditions to include in its national genetic testing programme, as it doubles its cohort of volunteer participants for its long-term population health and genomic study.
Precision Health Research, Singapore (PRECISE) recently launched the third phase of the National Precision Medicine (NPM) programme with the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the country's three health system clusters – NHG Health, National University Health System, and SingHealth.
Phase III builds on the first two phases of NPM: Phase I studied genome samples from 10,000 Singaporeans, which led to the
SG100k study in Phase II, where genomes of 100,000 consenting individuals were sequenced and analysed. Clinical pilots during the first two NPM phases generated evidence that informed the Ministry of Health's decision to launch a national genetic testing programme for
familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) in June.
PRECISE chief innovation officer Dr Tan Ee Shien told
Healthcare IT News that the institute is preparing a review of other conditions, specifically hereditary breast and ovarian cancers and primary glomerular diseases linked to kidney failure, to be covered under the national genetic testing programme. It will also consider studying pre-emptive pharmacogenomics to guide drug prescriptions.
The review considers clinical utility, population health impact, health system readiness, and participants' or patients' views in expanding its coverage of medical conditions.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
Precision medicine is one of Singapore's strategic priority areas under its Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 plan.
According to PRECISE, NPM Phase III will be conducted as a large-scale research initiative to generate comprehensive evidence on the cost and effectiveness of population-level genomic research. It is expected to inform future integration of genomic information to support preventive and personalised care.
Dr Tan told this publication that over the next five years, Phase III will expand to 400,000-450,000 local residents (about 10% of Singapore's 4 million resident population). These include individuals receiving medical treatments and healthcare services.
The expanded participant pool, she said, will make the base genomic dataset "likely generate new multi-ancestry reference panels, variant databases, and Asian-specific polygenic risk tools."
"Our statistical genetics team's data modelling found that a cohort of 400,000-450,000 participants would provide adequate statistical power to capture the vast majority of genetic alleles relevant to Asian health and disease," noted Dr Tan, who is also a clinical associate professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the Duke-NUS Medical School.
ON THE RECORD
"By 2030, we expect Phase III to deliver the foundational evidence base that will enable the systematic integration of precision medicine into routine clinical practice, transforming how we approach prevention, early detection, and treatment across our healthcare system. This will allow important studies to better understand how genomic information may be used to support improved health outcomes," Dr Tan said.
"Importantly, Phase III is about understanding and addressing the practical challenges of integrating precision medicine into clinical care in a thoughtful, sustainable, and equitable way," she emphasised.