Genetic Testing and Counseling Among Patients With Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer

Germline genetic testing of breast cancer patients is an important model of how increasingly widespread genomic sequencing can influence treatment decision-making. Testing of two breast cancer-associated genes, BRCA1/2, has been available for twenty years, but new massively parallel sequencing technology and less restrictive patent laws have made multiplex panel tests available at much lower costs.1 Yet little is known about recent patient experience with genetic testing and counseling. Genetic counselors are expert in risk assessment and communication, but because of workforce limitations, some physicians must counsel and test patients without their assistance.2 These challenges motivated this investigation of patients’ use of and perspectives on genetic counseling and testing.