Telephone Delivery OK for BRCA1/2 Genetic Counseling

Not inferior to in-person counseling with respect to knowledge gained and perceived stress
Telephone Delivery OK for BRCA1/2 Genetic Counseling

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The psychosocial outcomes of telephone genetic counseling are noninferior to standard in-person genetic counseling for BRCA1/2 gene testing, according to research published online Jan. 21 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Marc D. Schwartz, Ph.D., of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and colleagues randomly assigned women, aged 21 to 85 years, who did not have newly diagnosed or metastatic cancer, to telephone counseling (335 participants) or usual care (334 participants). The authors sought to determine whether telephone counseling was noninferior to in-person counseling for BRCA1/2 gene testing.

The researchers found that, at two weeks after pretest counseling, telephone counseling was noninferior to usual care for all primary outcomes, including knowledge, perceived stress, satisfaction, decision conflict, and cancer distress. Telephone counseling was not equivalent to usual care for the uptake of BRCA1/2 testing. Per patient, telephone counseling cost $114 less per patient than usual care.

"It is time to embrace telephone genetic counseling as a legitimate and effective way to increase patient access to genetic counseling services," writes the author of an accompanying editorial.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical and/or biomedical companies.

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Editorial

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