A study of the relationship between family history of breast cancer and knowledge of breast cancer genetic testing prerequisites

Awareness of hereditary breast cancer genetic testing, of boast cancer risk factors, and of increased level of risk based on family history are necess ary before women can seek out genetic services. The aim of this paper is to describe the relationships between family history of breast cancer and awa reness of genetic testing, knowledge of breast cancer risk factors, and per ceived lifetime risk of breast cancer. An anonymous survey was administered by mail to a random sample of 600 women, 200 from each of three breast can cer family history groups (none, intermediate, and strong), drawn from a po pulation-based registry of 240,000 women enrolled in a mammography screenin g program in the Denver Metropolitan area in Colorado. Awareness of genetic testing for breast cancer risk assessment was found to be significantly as sociated with family history of breast cancer, increasing from 35% in the l owest family history risk group to 67% in the group with the strongest fami lial risk (p = 0.002). In all family history groups, nearly 70% of responde nts viewed high-fat diet and smoking as being important in relation to brea st cancer risk, but alcohol was seen as being only somewhat important or no t important by almost half of all respondents. Having a mother or sister wi th breast cancer was reported as being extremely or very important by nearl y all respondents, regardless of family history. As expected, perceived lif etime risk for developing breast cancer was associated with family history (p = 0.001), but the perception of the lifetime risk for breast cancer was much higher among all of the family history groups than their true risk. in conclusion, educational interventions an needed to heighten women's awaren ess of genetic testing, to clarify women's knowledge of breast cancer risk factors, especially alcohol, and to reassure many women that their actual b reast cancer risk is lower than they might perceive.