[Information spreading about hereditary carriage of a BRCA1/2 mutation and ovarian cancer and rate of consultation of the concerned relatives]

Abstract

Five to 10% of breast and ovarian cancer are linked to a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. In our country, the information given to the relatives is inevitably mediated by the persons who have consulted. The report of a gap between the number of presumed persons concerned by the genetic information according to our genealogies and the actual number of consultants brought us to question about the transmission of the information in the family, about the possible motives for the lack of transmission, about the rate of consultation of the concerned relatives and on the presumed motives of non-consultation. This sample includes 31 target consultants (index cases) of mutated families which received the result of the genetic test during the period from January, 2003 till June, 2005. According to the information gathered, most of the relatives (73.1%) are informed about the presence of a deleterious mutation in the family, especially women (80.7%). The motives for non-information are the social and emotional distance, as well as the stressful character of the information. Apparently the information is disclosed through the family by the women who are alive and carry the mutation. On the other hand, a minority of the women (39.7%) who are supposed to be informed and living in the region attended the oncogenetic consultation, which represents 32 % of all concerned women who come of age. The motives for short-term absence of consultation can just be presumed. The characteristics which we studied do not allow us to point out some particularities among women who consulted except the nearness with one mutated relative.