Genetic testing and personalized ovarian cancer screening: a survey of public attitudes

Susanne F. Meisel, Belinda Rahman, Lucy Side, Lindsay Fraser, Sue Gessler, Anne Lanceley, Jane Wardle, for the PROMISE-2016 study team

Advances in genetic technologies are expected to make population-wide genetic testing feasible. This could provide a basis for risk stratified cancer screening; but acceptability in the target populations has not been explored. We assessed attitudes to risk-stratified ovarian cancer (OC) screening based on prior genetic risk assessment using a survey design. Home-based interviews were carried out by the UK Office of National Statistics in a population-based sample of 1095 women aged 18-74. Demographic and personal correlates of attitudes to risk-stratified OC screening based on prior genetic risk assessment were determined using univariate analyses and adjusted logistic regression models. Full data on the key analytic questions were available for 829 respondents (mean age 46 years; 27 % 'university educated'; 93 % 'White'). Relatively few respondents felt they were at 'higher' or 'much higher' risk of OC than other women of their age group (7.4 %, n = 61). Most women (85 %) said they would 'probably' or 'definitely' take up OC genetic testing; which increased to 88 % if the test also informed about breast cancer risk. Almost all women (92 %) thought they would 'probably' or 'definitely' participate in risk-stratified OC screening. In multivariate logistic regression models, university level education was associated with lower anticipated uptake of genetic testing (p = 0.009), but with more positive attitudes toward risk-stratified screening (p <0.001). Perceived risk was not significantly associated with any of the outcome variables. These findings give confidence in taking forward research on integration of novel genomic technologies into mainstream healthcare.