BRCA1/2 Testing: Patient Uptake and Treatment Choices

This project is designed to examine factors associated with the uptake of BRCA1/2 genetic testing and patients' medical management choices after learning their test results. The project will study patients' actual testing and medical management decisions in clinical practice and will examine the role of practitioner attitudes in those decisions. Data will be collected through interviews with patients who are offered BRCA1/2 testing, and through questionnaires to their practitioners. The main goals of the project are: 1) to determine the characteristics of health care practitioners who are interested in or request the BRCA1/2 test, and to test the hypothesis that practitioner specialty, attitudes towards testing, and use of genetic counseling facilities are associated, and that these variables change over time; 2) to test the hypothesis that patient uptake of BRCA1/2 testing is associated with patient demographics, patient knowledge and concerns about testing, actual and perceived risk factors, physician characteristics, and the extent of the informed consent process; and 3) to examine the role of practitioner characteristics in patient medical management decisions after receiving BRCA1 testing. (Co-funded with NCI. Member of CGSC)