Telephone genetic counseling good for breast cancer risk …

Posted: January 24, 2014 at 11:41 pm

The counseling that goes along with testing for breast cancer risk genes can be delivered just as effectively over the phone as in person, and at lower cost, according to new research.

Researchers found that women counseled over the phone before testing fared about the same in their understanding of the test and reactions to it as those counseled in person.

"Genetic counselors are not evenly distributed across the country," Marc Schwartz said. "So there are parts of the country that don't have easy access to genetic cancer counseling."

Schwartz is the study's lead author. He's also co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program and co-director of the Fisher Center for Familial Cancer Research at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C.

Genetic counseling is a way to provide information and support to people and families who have genetic disorders or may be at risk for inherited conditions, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

"We have - by virtue of the incredibly high demand for genetic risk counseling - been looking for alternative avenues," Dr. Sofia Merajver told Reuters Health.

Merajver is director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk and Evaluation Program at the University of Michigan Health System's Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor. She was not involved with the new study.

"We've all done telephone counseling for patients who are very far away, very ill and for patients who couldn't afford it," she said.

Telephone counseling is not necessarily encouraged, however. Schwartz also said it has been somewhat controversial.

For the new study, researchers from Washington, New York, Boston and Burlington, Vermont, recruited 669 women who were between the ages of 21 and 85 years old.

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