Uptake of genetic testing for cancer predisposition

Although there has been much debate about the uptake and effects of predictive testing for common cancers, such as breast and colon cancer, little has been published on the more classical tumour predisposing conditions, such as von Hippel-Lindau disease and familial adenomatous polyposis. Since 1990 the genetics departments in Manchester and Cambridge have had a genetic register for cancer predisposing syndromes and presymptomatic testing for these conditions has been offered once this has become possible. To investigate the factors that might influence uptake of genetic testing in familial cancer syndromes we have reviewed our experience. Demand for predictive testing has generally been high, but men had a lower uptake (77%) than a comparable group of women (93%) (p<0.01).