Journal article

When knowledge of a heritable gene mutation comes out of the blue: Treatment-focused genetic testing in women newly diagnosed with breast cancer

B Meiser, VF Quinn, M Gleeson, J Kirk, KM Tucker, B Rahman, C Saunders, KJ Watts, M Peate, E Geelhoed, K Barlow-Stewart, M Field, M Harris, YC Antill, G Mitchell

European Journal of Human Genetics | SPRINGERNATURE | Published : 2016

Abstract

Selection of women for treatment-focused genetic testing (TFGT) following a new diagnosis of breast cancer is changing. Increasingly a patient's age and tumour characteristics rather than only their family history are driving access to TFGT, but little is known about the impact of receiving carrier-positive results in individuals with no family history of cancer. This study assesses the role of knowledge of a family history of cancer on psychosocial adjustment to TFGT in both women with and without mutation carrier-positive results. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 women who had undergone TFGT, and who had been purposively sampled to represent women both family histo..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers