A SOCIOBEHAVIOURAL PERSPECTIVE ON GENETIC TESTING AND COUNSELING FOR HERITABLE BREAST, OVARIAN AND COLON-CANCER

Testing for susceptibility to heritable breast, ovarian and colon canc er has unique psychosocial costs. Negative test results may not be suf ficient to relieve anxiety, and positive results can cause sufficient distress to compromise patient compliance with surveillance and risk r eduction measures. More needs to be learned about how sociocultural fa ctors affect the understanding of risk, how decisions to undergo testi ng are made and how information about increased risk affects family dy namics. As the demand for testing and counselling grows, health care p roviders will be faced with new challenges and dilemmas. A better unde rstanding of genetics by the public is needed to mitigate deterministi c attitudes that can lead to the neglect of health promotion. Also of concern are the socioeconomic implications of being identified as havi ng a high risk for heritable cancer and the dangers inherent in using genetics to explain sociological phenomena. Health care providers must take the lead in ensuring that developments in genetics are used to t he benefit of all.