Are beliefs about the importance of genetics for cancer prevention and early detection associated with high risk cancer genetic testing in the U.S. Population?

Awareness and use of genetic testing: An analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey 2020

“…This is consistent with the findings from previous HINTS iterations 1 , 10 and previous work using HINTS 5 cycle 4, which found that those with a history of breast, ovarian or colorectal cancer were more likely to have cancer genetic testing. 5 In this analysis, results may have been driven by breast cancer cases among those with a personal history of cancer. Although these results are encouraging that there is an increased awareness of genetic testing for those with a family history or personal history of cancer, we were unable to confirm that those reporting of having a genetic test did so in accordance with current clinical care guidelines.…”

“…Previous works have shown differences in awareness of genetic testing by race and ethnicity and income 1 – 4 and differences in uptake specifically for cancer genetic testing by race and ethnicity. 5 , 6 …”

Clinical Cancer and Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Test Result-Sharing Behavior: Findings from HINTS 2020

“…A surprising finding from our bivariate analysis is that respondents who believed in the importance of genetic testing for cancer prevention were less likely to share results with HCP/GCs. In our prior work using the same HINTS data, beliefs about genetically informed cancer prevention versus early detection were not associated with genetic testing in predictable ways [ 27 ]. Another explanation is that respondents may have interpreted sharing as the initiation of sharing, the opportunities for which are rare in clinical oncology.…”