Seeking balance: decision support needs of women without cancer and a deleterious BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.

Recommendations for women with a deleterious BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation include complex medical approaches related to cancer risk reduction and detection. Current science has not yet fully elucidated decision support needs that women face when living with medical consequences associated with known hereditary cancer risk. The purpose of this study was to describe health communication and decision support needs in healthy women with BRCA1/2 gene mutations.

Women receiving news of a family BRCA1/2 mutation: messages of fear and empowerment.

Purpose: Communication of genetic test results to healthy at-risk family members is complicated considering family dynamics and the complexity of cancer genetics. The purpose of this study was to understand the experience of family communication of BRCA1/2 results from the perspective of young and middle-aged women receiving the news. THEORETICAL RATIONALE: Individuals are self-interpretive beings influenced by family culture, history, and communication patterns.

Learning about a twist in the road: perspectives of at-risk relatives learning of potential for cancer.

Purpose/objectives: To describe the experiences of women who accessed the Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE) Web site after learning of a family BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.

Research Approach: Interpretive phenomenology based on Heideggerian hermeneutics.

Setting: Telephone interviews of women living in the United States who accessed FORCE.

Survivorship considerations in adults with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome: state of the science.

Introduction: Five to 10% of breast cancers are caused by inherited mutations of the BRCA1/2 genes. Knowledge of inherited risk for cancer has potential for psychosocial consequences. The purpose of this review is to determine the survivorship concerns of women with mutations of BRCA1/2; with and without a diagnosis of cancer.