Genetic counseling for cancer patients has become the standard of care at academic medical centers. However, patients cared for at community-based medical practices in the U.S may not always have access to genetic counseling.
A new study done at the Basser Center for BRCA https://www.basser.org at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center https://www.pennmedicine.org/cancer has found that video and phone sessions can close that gap and bring genetic counseling to patients in local and rural communities.
The research team randomly assigned 115 patients who were patients at primary care practices throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland into two groups who were candidates for genetic testing.
One group in the trial received a phone or video counseling sessions. The other group received information on how they can get genetic testing which might mean driving to a center to talk to a genetic counselor or perhaps having genetic testing done with their doctor without the assistance of a genetics professional.
The randomized controlled trial was used to determine whether patients at community practices would undergo genetic testing after undergoing counseling or if the group using remote phone calls or attending video sessions received genetic counseling in a more effective manner.
The trial found that 77 percent of the patients chose to do genetic counseling using technology as compared to just six percent in the group of patients that were in the group offered usual care options for genetic testing. In general, it has been found that genetic counseling is gaining ground using technology to provide information to patients.
Now and in the future, it is thought that the demand for genetic counseling will keep growing not only at major medical centers but in communities all over the U.S. as more patients and their specialists will need to make even more decisions related to cancer treatments as more knowledge on treatments becomes available.