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Cancer Worry, Perceived Risk and Cancer Screening in First-Degree Relatives of Patients with Familial Gastric Cancer

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Journal of Genetic Counseling

Abstract

Currently, there is a lack of evidence evaluating the psychological impact of cancer-related risk perception and worry in individuals at high risk for gastric cancer. We examined the relationships between perceived risk, cancer worry and screening behaviors among first-degree relatives (FDRs) of patients with familial gastric cancer. FDRs of patients diagnosed with familial gastric cancer with a non-informative genetic analysis were identified and contacted. Participants completed a telephone interview that assessed socio-demographic information, cancer risk perception, cancer worry, impact of worry on daily functioning, and screening behaviors. Twenty-five FDRs completed the telephone interview. Participants reported high levels of comparative and absolute cancer risk perception, with an average perceived lifetime risk of 54 %. On the other hand, cancer-related worry scores were low, with a significant minority (12 %) experiencing high levels of worry. Study participants exhibited high levels of confidence (median = 70 %) in the effectiveness of screening at detecting a curable cancer. Participants that had undergone screening in the past showed significantly lower levels of cancer-related worry compared to those that had never undergone screening. In conclusion, individuals at high-risk for gastric cancer perceived a very high personal risk of cancer, but reported low levels of cancer worry. This paradoxical result may be attributed to participants’ high levels of confidence in the effectiveness of screening. These findings highlight the importance for clinicians to discuss realistic risk appraisals and expectations towards screening with unaffected members of families at risk for gastric cancer, in an effort to help mitigate anxiety and help with coping.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

    Jenny Li

  2. Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Tae L. Hart & Cassandra Crangle

  3. Zane Cohen Centre for Digestive Diseases, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Tae L. Hart, Melyssa Aronson & Anand Govindarajan

  4. Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, 600 University Ave, Suite 1220, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X5, Canada

    Anand Govindarajan

  5. Sinai Health System, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Tae L. Hart & Anand Govindarajan

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Tae L. Hart

Authors
  1. Jenny Li
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  2. Tae L. Hart
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  3. Melyssa Aronson
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  4. Cassandra Crangle
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  5. Anand Govindarajan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anand Govindarajan.

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Conflict of Interest

Authors Jenny Li, Tae L. Hart, Melyssa Aronson, Cassandra Crangle, and Anand Govindarajan declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human Studies and Informed Consent

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Board at Mount Sinai Hospital. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Animal Studies

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Li, J., Hart, T.L., Aronson, M. et al. Cancer Worry, Perceived Risk and Cancer Screening in First-Degree Relatives of Patients with Familial Gastric Cancer. J Genet Counsel 25, 520–528 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-015-9903-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-015-9903-z

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