Search

We sought to examine how patients' treatment decisions incorporate potentially conflicting information from standard clinical indicators (e.g., tumor size) and genomic tests for breast cancer recurrence risk. Participants were 77 early stage breast cancer survivors who previously received genomic testing. They read six hypothetical vignettes that varied recurrence risk indicated by standard tests (low or high risk) coupled with the genomic test (low, intermediate or high risk). For each vignette, women reported their perceived recurrence risk and treatment preferences. Test results indicating high recurrence risk increased perception of risk and preference for chemotherapy (p < .001 for all). Perceived risk explained (i.e., mediated) the effect of test results on chemotherapy preferences. When test results conflicted, women gave more weight to genomic over standard test results. Hypothetical genomic test results had the intended effect of influencing women's perceptions of recurrence risk and interest in chemotherapy. Keywords Risk recurrence * Genomics * Oncotype DX * Chemotherapy * Patient decision making, Introduction As genomic testing becomes more common in clinical care for cancer (Morris & Carey, 2007), understanding how patients use information from these tests has increased in importance. One such [...]

Introduction There is considerable anticipation of future improvements in disease prevention and treatment following recent advances in genomics [1]. One aspect of genomics that is receiving considerable interest is epigenetics-the [...]

In the 1990s, during the era of the Human Genome Project, many researchers were very optimistic about the capacity of such large-scale genetic projects to revolutionize the prevention of disease [...]

At first glance, 2014 may seem like a year dominated by disease outbreaks, from polio's reemergence in parts of Asia to the Ebola epidemic that still continues to make headlines. [...]