Genetic Counselling for Cancer and Risk Perception

The main aim was to investigate risk perception and psychological distress in individuals attending genetic counselling. A consecutive series of 86 individuals with a diagnosis and/or family history of breast, ovarian or colorectal cancer was included. Risk assessments were performed before and immediately after genetic counselling and at a one-year follow-up. Psychological distress was assessed 1 week before, and 6 weeks, 6 months and 1 year after genetic counselling. The number of individuals who correctly estimated the general risk in the population increased significantly from 35% before to 82% after counselling (p<0.001). One year later, data on general risk estimates showed a significant reduction of the number of correct estimations to 51%, compared with directly after the counselling (p<0.005). In total, 54% estimated their own lifetime risk correctly after the counselling, compared with 17% before (p<0.001) (those with a cancer diagnosis estimated the risk of their children developing cancer). On...