Too Few Women Get Counseling Before Breast Cancer Gene Test: Study
Too Few Women Get Counseling Before Breast Cancer Gene Test: Study
But outside expert questions whether counseling may be more important after test comes back positive
"We're no longer just doing a test for BRCA. We're doing a panel of up to 25 different genes," Daly said. "That makes the interpretation of the results that much more difficult."
But only one out of every 20 women in this study came back positive for a BRCA mutation, which raises the question of whether the other 19 women received any benefit at all from the counseling they got beforehand, Narod said.
In the past, insurance companies required genetic counseling prior to testing as a cost-saving measure, to make sure that women without a family history of cancer were steered away from the then-expensive procedure, Narod said.
Women would be better served if the limited number of genetics counselors in the United States focused on helping them interpret the results of a positive test, rather than preparing them prior to the test, he said.
Women with a positive test might need to have their breasts or ovaries removed as a cancer prevention measure, or might have to undergo regular MRI screenings for cancer, Narod said. They also face passing along this knowledge of hereditary cancer risk to other female family members. By comparison, there's no real genetic counseling required if the test comes back negative.
"The doctors are perfectly capable of ordering the test, providing the preliminary information the patient needs in order to decide whether to have the test, and interpreting a negative test," Narod said. "The genetic counselor should focus on interpreting a positive test."
Too Few Get Counseling Before BRCA Gene Test
But outside expert questions whether counseling may be more important after test comes back positive
"We're no longer just doing a test for BRCA. We're doing a panel of up to 25 different genes," Daly said. "That makes the interpretation of the results that much more difficult."
But only one out of every 20 women in this study came back positive for a BRCA mutation, which raises the question of whether the other 19 women received any benefit at all from the counseling they got beforehand, Narod said.
In the past, insurance companies required genetic counseling prior to testing as a cost-saving measure, to make sure that women without a family history of cancer were steered away from the then-expensive procedure, Narod said.
Women would be better served if the limited number of genetics counselors in the United States focused on helping them interpret the results of a positive test, rather than preparing them prior to the test, he said.
Women with a positive test might need to have their breasts or ovaries removed as a cancer prevention measure, or might have to undergo regular MRI screenings for cancer, Narod said. They also face passing along this knowledge of hereditary cancer risk to other female family members. By comparison, there's no real genetic counseling required if the test comes back negative.
"The doctors are perfectly capable of ordering the test, providing the preliminary information the patient needs in order to decide whether to have the test, and interpreting a negative test," Narod said. "The genetic counselor should focus on interpreting a positive test."
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