title: How do women decide? Accepting or declining BRCA1/2 testing in a nationwide clinical sample in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the role of the practitioner, informed consent, and genetic counseling in genetic testing decisions and to assess their relative influence on women's decision to have clinical BRCA1/2 testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative study using in-depth open-ended interviews with 68 women who had considered clinical BRCA1/2 testing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Slightly less than half of the women who had considered BRCA1/2 testing were found to have had a clear and preexisting desire to test or not to test, irrespective of practitioner attitude or advice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The decision to accept or decline genetic testing is the result of a complex process that goes beyond interactions between health care providers and patients, indicating a caution against exclusive reliance on informed consent or counseling encounters.
authors.affiliation: Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. sankarp@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sankar
authors.forename: Paul Root
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Wolpe
authors.forename: Nora L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Mildred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D019398:Genes, BRCA1; D024522:Genes, BRCA2; D005820:Genetic Testing / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D014481:United States