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..

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