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Psychosocial and Clinical Factors Associated with Family Communication of Cancer Genetic Test Results among Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer at a Young Age

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Journal of Genetic Counseling

Abstract

Genetic test results have medical implications beyond the patient that extend to biological family members. We examined psychosocial and clinical factors associated with communication of genetic test results within families. Women (N = 1080) diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 or younger completed an online survey; 920 women that reported prior cancer genetic testing were included in analysis. We examined the proportion of immediate family members to whom they communicated genetic test results, and built multivariable regression models to examine clinical and psychosocial variables associated with the proportion score. Participants were most likely to communicate test results to their mother (83 %) and least likely to their son (45 %). Participants who carried a BRCA mutation (OR = 1.34; 95 % CI = 1.06, 1.70), had higher interest in genomic information (OR = 1.55; 95 % CI = 1.26, 1.91) and lower genetic worry (OR = 0.91; 95 % CI = 0.86, 0.96) communicated genetic test results to a greater proportion of their immediate family members. Participants with a BRCA1/2 mutation shared their genetic test results with more male family members (OR = 1.72; 95 % CI = 1.02, 2.89). Our findings suggest that patients with high worry about genetic risks, low interest in genomic information, or receive a negative genetic test result will likely need additional support to encourage family communication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication, University of Utah, 255 Central Campus Drive, LNCO, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Ashley Elrick & Kimberly A. Kaphingst

  2. College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Sato Ashida

  3. Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Jennifer Ivanovich, Sarah Lyons & Melody S. Goodman

  4. Social and Behavioral Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Barbara B. Biesecker

  5. Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Kimberly A. Kaphingst

Authors
  1. Ashley Elrick
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  2. Sato Ashida
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  3. Jennifer Ivanovich
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  4. Sarah Lyons
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  5. Barbara B. Biesecker
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  6. Melody S. Goodman
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  7. Kimberly A. Kaphingst
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Correspondence to Ashley Elrick.

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Funding

This study was funded by R01 CA168608. Effort for BBB was supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute’s Intramural Research Program.

Conflict of Interest

Ashley Elrick, Sato Ashida, Jennifer Ivanovich, Sarah Lyons, Barbara B. Biesecker, Melody S. Goodman and Kimberly A. Kaphingst declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human Subjects and Informed Consent

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. 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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Elrick, A., Ashida, S., Ivanovich, J. et al. Psychosocial and Clinical Factors Associated with Family Communication of Cancer Genetic Test Results among Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer at a Young Age. J Genet Counsel 26, 173–181 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-016-9995-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-016-9995-0

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