A systematic review of the social, ethical, and legal dimensions of genetic cancer risk assessment technologies

Analysis of a blood sample, for example, can provide information about an individual’s risk of developing a specific cancer 2. For example, the first genetic marker for cancer susceptibility, the RB (retinoblastoma) gene, was identified in the mid-1980’s 3. The more widely known breast cancer gene BRCA1 was cloned in September, 1994 4, ending a four year search that began with the localization of [...] The grey literature search, the review of the bibliographies of the primary research reports and the citation search via the Web of Science identified an additional 30 quantitative research papers (one of which also contained qualitative data), two qualitative research papers and 30 narrative documents. [...] Given the lack of a standard, empirically grounded quality assessment tool suitable for use with a variety of study designs, we developed and implemented a tool (QualSyst) that consists of two scoring systems to evaluate the quality of the studies potentially eligible for inclusion in our review; one for quantitative research and one for qualitative research. [...] Primary research reports: major content areas Awareness of cancer susceptibility genes/genetic testing for cancer susceptibility Awareness of cancer susceptibility genes and genetic testing for cancer susceptibility has been studied in the general population and in clinical populations of women at low risk for hereditary cancer (Table 1). [...] Summary of results from studies assessing awareness of cancer susceptibility genes/genetic testing for cancer susceptibility Study Year Study Population Cancer Type % Aware of Cancer Susceptibility Reference Genes/Genetic Testing for Cancer Number Susceptibility Andrykowski 1995 General population Cancer in general Aware of the topic of hereditary cancer risk: et al.