Intergenerational communication about inherited breast cancer susceptibility between mothers and their children

Family communication about high-risk hereditary breast cancer genetic testing (e.g., genetic testing for BRCA1/2 mutations) and maternal disclosure of cancer genetic test results to minor children is a complex decision and raises a number of parenting challenges. Genetic counseling can help mitigate some of these challenges by providing patients with educational resources. The development of family communication decision-support tools can further augment patients’ genetic counseling experience by creating a more shared and informed framework for understanding communication choices and outcomes. Given the field’s growing propensity to genetically test multiple generations of relatives within the same family over time, adequately meeting the needs of patients seeking to engage in intergenerational cancer risk communication with children is an important and emerging area of behavioral oncology research.

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