Principal Investigator

• Robert Gramling, MD
  Brown University

Participating Institutions

• Hunstman Cancer Insititute at University of Utah
• University of New Mexico
• University of Colorado
• University of California, Irvine

Synopsis

Genetic risk-based cancer prevention strategies are emerging in medical practice. The initial efforts to translate predictive cancer genetics into primary care practice have focused on the screening and the offer of specialty referral to those individuals whose family pedigree meets criteria for a highly penetrant and known single-gene variant. However, the vast majority of primary care patients with a family history of cancer will not meet these criteria but yet still has an identifiably increased probability of developing cancer based on their close family history. This study focuses on the psycho-behavioral impact of cancer risk information among this latter population of primary care patients. This study will focus on the disease models of breast and colon cancer for which DNA testing is clinically available and significant screening activity among primary care physicians has been described.