SONS OF MEN WITH PROSTATE-CANCER - THEIR ATTITUDES REGARDING POSSIBLEINHERITANCE OF PROSTATE-CANCER, SCREENING, AND GENETIC TESTING

Objectives, To study attitudes regarding possible inheritance of prost ate cancer among sons of menwith prostate cancer. Methods. A questionn aire was sent to 69 men with prostate cancer and their 101 unaffected sons. All participants were also interviewed by telephone; Sociodemogr aphic data were collected, as were data about the fathers' disease. Re sults. The response rate was high: 100 sons (99%) and 65 fathers (94%) answered all questions. Sixty of the sons claimed they had worries ab out having an increased risk of prostate cancer due to possible inheri tance. About 90% of the sons wanted to know whether prostate cancer wa s inheritable (66 definitely and 24 probably), were positively incline d to undergo screening (65 definitely and 27 probably), and to undergo genetic testing (50 definitely and 41 probably), provided there had b een multiple cases of prostate cancer in their family, An interest to know whether prostate cancer could be inherited was more frequent amon g sons with less than 12 years of education, worries about inheritance , younger age, a father treated with curative intent, and with childre n of their own, especially if sons. Interest in genetic testing was as sociated with less than 12 years of education and with worries about i nheritance. Conclusions. A large majority of healthy men with a family history of prostate cancer were interested in knowing whether the dis ease could be inherited and were positively inclined to undergo screen ing and genetic testing. Our findings indicate that genetic counseling and a screening program could have beneficial psychological effects i n families with multiple cases of prostate cancer. (C) 1997, Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.