When women with children attend a counseling session before undergoing genetic testing for breast cancer, they are far more likely than their partners to be up front with their kids about the tests and the potential for cancers being inherited, according to a study released today here at the annual meeting of the National Society of Genetic Counselors.
However, researchers also found that when the co-parent—a spouse, partner or other adult involved in the upbringing and care of the children—attended the genetic counseling session with the woman, they were more informed about genetic testing and had much more interaction and communication with their children than those who did not attend, said Tiffani A. DeMarco, lead author of the study.
“The bottom line is that moms are really the gatekeepers of the information about genetic testing,” said DeMarco, a genetic counselor and clinical coordinator of the cancer genetics program at Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Center and the Washington Cancer Institute/Washington Hospital Center. “But women can potentially benefit from having a co-parent who attends the counseling session because they will be more likely to understand what the mom is going through and more likely to be able to communicate some of that to their children.”