Community attitudes towards a Jewish community BRCA1/2 testing program

AbstractAbout 2.5  % of the Ashkenazi-Jewish population carry one of three “founder” mutations inBRCA1 andBRCA2 (BRCA1/2). Currently, testing is offered to Jewish people with a personal and/or family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer; however less than half ofBRCA1/2 carriers within the Jewish population are aware of their family history. Population-based testing in other countries has shown to greatly increase the number of mutation carriers identified, compared to targeted testing of people with a family history. We aimed to assess the Australian Jewish community ’s attitudes towards such a program, including acceptability and interest in having education and testing offered online. Members of Sydney-based Jewish organisations who self-identified as being Jewish were invited by e-mail to participate in an online survey. Of 370 individuals who completed the survey, 96.8 % supported a Jewish community-basedBRCA1/2 testing program, and 65.6  % reported being personally interested in undergoing the test. Younger adults aged below 50 years were more interested in undergoing the test than those aged 50 years and above. Almost half (42.9 %) were aware of a family member with breast and/or ovarian cancer; however, of these, 77.1 % had not yet undergone testing. Sixty-five (65.1 %) percent were satisfied with providing consent online, while only 39.6 % of participants’ first preference for method of information provision was online. Given the high level of sup...
Source: Familial Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research