Gauging the psychological impact of counseling patients with BRCA1/2, CDH1, TP53, and Lynch Syndrome pathogenic variants on genetic counselors in the cancer setting

Genetic counselors (GCs) in the cancer setting are involved to the repeat exposure of discussing life-altering management recommendations for individuals who test positive for pathogenic mutations in cancer susceptibility genes. This study attempted to characterize the short- and long-term psychological impact GCs may experience as a result of repeat exposure to discussing management recommendations associated with pathogenic mutations in BRCA1/2, CDH1, TP53 and Lynch syndrome by surveying GCs in the cancer setting. Our study showed that GCs experience an increase in anxious feelings and sadness, and have concerns about variant penetrance prior to counseling patients with positive test results. We discovered that there are significantly increased levels of anxious feelings, sadness and penetrance concerns when counseling patients on pathogenic mutations in CDH1 and TP53 versus BRCA1/2 and Lynch syndrome. This effect appears to be tempered by time in practice as well as access to coping strategies including access to other GCs.M.S.Includes bibliographical reference