title: Attitudes of patients with cancer about personalized medicine and somatic genetic testing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dramatic advances in genomic technology stand to revolutionize cancer care; however, little is known about patients' understanding and acceptance of personalized medicine and widespread genetic testing (GT).
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a formative, semi-structured interview study with a random sample of patients with lung, colorectal, and breast cancers to assess awareness of personalized medicine and GT and attitudes about somatic GT. Willingness to undergo GT was elicited through hypothetic scenarios.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-nine patients participated; 71% were women; 42% were black; median age was 59 years; and 42% had an education level ≥ college. We found that a majority of patients either were not aware of the term "personalized medicine" or defined it in unexpected ways. Although many patients identified relevant benefits of somatic testing (eg, informs treatment), many patients also expressed significant concerns (ie, psychological harm and discrimination). A majority of patients expressed a willingness to undergo somatic (predictive, 96%, prognostic, 93%) and germline (cancer risk without incidental information, 87%; cancer risk with incidental information, 81%; pharmacogenetic, 91%) testing; however, far fewer patients expressed a willingness to undergo full genome sequencing (62%). Reluctance was attributed to concerns over incidental findings, information overload, and the lack of a clear benefit.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many patients relayed misunderstandings about somatic testing and a reluctance to undergo full sequencing; oncologists must carefully consider how they present testing to patients so that concerns over discrimination and psychological harm do not hinder test uptake. More work is needed to identify effective ways to communicate complex genomic concepts to patients and research participants.
authors.affiliation: Center for Population Sciences, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Ave, LW 633, Boston, MA 02215, USA. stacyw_gray@dfci.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Stacy W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hicks-Courant
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Lathan
authors.forename: Levi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garraway
authors.forename: Elyse R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jane C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Weeks
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005820:Genetic Testing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057285:Precision Medicine / Q000523:psychology*; D063508:Social Discrimination