Gene Tests for Colon Cancer Risk: Psychosocial Studies

The main goal of this proposal is to develop appropriate comprehensive counseling guidelines for predictive colon cancer gene testing by assessing perceptions and attitudes toward the gene tests, including their social and psychological determinants, and assessing the impact of the tests on at-risk persons. Our specific aims are: to characterize in at-risk individuals those psychosocial factors that predict willingness to undergo genetic testing for colon cancer, to determine projected uses that will be made of the gene test, and to determine the influence of social context, primarily family culture, in shaping at-risk individuals' attitudes toward and perceptions of the gene test; to compare attitudes toward and perceptions of genetic testing for colon cancer between white and African-American individuals; to identify predictors of psychological distress associated with pre- and post-disclosure cancer risk perception based on: experiences with cancer, knowledge/beliefs/ feelings about cancer, implicit models of illness regarding cancer, cancer risk perceptions, coping behaviors, and tolerance for ambiguity; and to assess post disclosure prevention-oriented health behaviors among persons receiving gene positive, gene negative and inconclusive test results. (Member of CGSC)