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Åke Borg

Åke Borg

Principal investigator

Åke Borg

BRCAsearch : written pre-test information and BRCA1/2 germline mutation testing in unselected patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer

Author

  • Martin P. Nilsson
  • Therese Törngren
  • Karin Henriksson
  • Ulf Kristoffersson
  • Anders Kvist
  • Barbro Silfverberg
  • Åke Borg
  • Niklas Loman

Summary, in English

Purpose: To evaluate a simplified method of pre-test information and germline BRCA1/2 mutation testing. Methods: In a prospective, single-arm study, comprehensive BRCA1/2 testing was offered to unselected patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer at three hospitals in south Sweden (BRCAsearch, ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02557776). Pre-test information was provided by a standardized invitation letter, but the patients could contact a genetic counselor for telephone genetic counseling if they felt a need for that. Noncarriers were informed about the test result through a letter. Mutation carriers were contacted and offered an appointment for in-person post-test genetic counseling. Results: During the period Feb 2, 2015–Aug 26, 2016, eight hundred and eighteen patients were invited to participate in the study. Through Jan 31, 2017, five hundred and forty-two (66.2%) of them consented to analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2. Eleven pathogenic mutations were found (BRCA1, n = 2; BRCA2, n = 9), corresponding to a mutation prevalence of 2.0%. Six out of 11 fulfilled the Swedish BRCA testing criteria, and 9 out of 11 fulfilled the NCCN testing criteria. None of the BRCA-associated tumors were of the luminal A-like subtype. Very few patients contacted us for telephone genetic counseling or practical questions, suggesting that a majority felt that the written pre-test information was sufficient for them to make a decision on testing. Conclusions: Streamlining the process of pre-test information, genetic testing, and delivery of test results was feasible and was associated with an uptake of genetic testing in 2/3 of the breast cancer patients.

Department/s

  • Tumor microenvironment
  • Familial Breast Cancer
  • Division of Clinical Genetics
  • BioCARE: Biomarkers in Cancer Medicine improving Health Care, Education and Innovation
  • Breastcancer-genetics

Publishing year

2018

Language

English

Pages

117-126

Publication/Series

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment

Volume

168

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Cancer and Oncology

Keywords

  • Breast cancer
  • Counseling
  • Genetic testing
  • Unselected

Status

Published

Research group

  • Familial Breast Cancer

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0167-6806