PSYCHOLOGICAL-ASPECTS OF MONITORING HIGH-RISK WOMEN FOR BREAST-CANCER

Background. There is a paucity of knowledge pertaining to the attitude s, feelings, and emotions of women who are at increased familial risk for breast cancer and how these concerns will affect their surveillanc e behavior. A review of the literature shows an unevenness in the conc lusions about these matters, with some reports indicating that anxiety aroused in the familial cancer setting may abet surveillance behavior , whereas other data indicates a negative effect. Methods. The authors reported anecdotal accounts of such behavior in women from hereditary breast and hereditary breast-ovarian cancer prone families. Results. Although these responses of fear, anxiety, and apprehension about canc er risk are not unique to this hereditary cohort, they nevertheless mu st have been tempered by often life-long exposure of cancer occurrence s that may have decimated their families. Conclusions. All accounts ag ree with the need to devote more research to the special needs-psychol ogical, social, insurance, and general public health measures-of these high risk women.