title: "It's not if I get cancer, it's when I get cancer": BRCA-positive patients' (un)certain health experiences regarding hereditary breast and ovarian cancer risk.
abstract: Women with a harmful mutation in the BReast CAncer (BRCA) gene are at significantly increased risk of developing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) during their lifetime, compared to those without. Such patients-with a genetic predisposition to develop cancer but who have not yet been diagnosed with cancer-live in a constant state of uncertainty and wonder not if they might get cancer but when.
  
  
  
  Framed by uncertainty management theory, the purpose of this study was to explore BRCA-positive patients' health experiences after testing positive for the BRCA genetic mutation, specifically identifying their sources of uncertainty.
  
  
  
  Thirty-four, qualitative interviews were conducted with female patients. Participants responded to online research postings on the non-profit organization Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered's (FORCE) message board and social media pages as well as HBOC-specific Facebook groups. The interview data were coded using the constant comparison method.
  
  
  
  Two major themes representing BRCA-positive patients' sources of uncertainty regarding their genetic predisposition and health experiences emerged from the data. Medical uncertainty included the following three subthemes: the unknown future, medical appointments, and personal cancer scares. Familial uncertainty encompassed the subthemes traumatic family cancer memories and motherhood.
  
  
  
  Overall, the study supports and extends existing research on uncertainty-revealing uncertainty is inherent in BRCA-positive patients' health experiences-and offers new insight regarding uncertainty management and HBOC risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler CIS 3057, Tampa, FL 33620, USA. Electronic address: marleahdeank@usf.edu.
authors.forename: Marleah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dean
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D019398:Genes, BRCA1; D024522:Genes, BRCA2; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D013781:Texas; D035501:Uncertainty; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: BRCA; Communication; Genetic risk; Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer