Among cancer patients who received personalized support and navigation services from experts throughout the genetic testing process, their first-degree relatives – parents, siblings and children – were significantly more likely to receive genetic testing, as well. Nearly half of those relatives carried a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, which are associated with a higher risk of cancer. The findings revealed that with personalized support, genetic testing uptake for BRCA increased from 51% to 73% among at-risk family members in six months. This highlights a promising strategy to improve the use of cascade genetic testing, a process in which family members of someone known to carry a cancer-related genetic mutation are offered testing to determine if they also inherited the variant. The study was led by Roni Wilke, M.D., assistant professor of Gynecologic Oncology & Reproductive Medicine.
“This study demonstrates that simply informing relatives of their inherited cancer risk is not enough,” Wilke said. “When we provided navigation to help people through the testing process, we noticed a meaningful difference in utilization and how soon people completed their testing. This creates new opportunities to enhance screening, prevention and early intervention for several hereditary cancers.”