| Theme | Recent Topics of Hereditary Colorectal Disease | |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Genetic Counseling on Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Syndromes | |
| Publish Date | 2008/08 | |
| Author | Masami Arai | Clinical Genetic Oncology, Cancer Institute Hospital |
| [ Summary ] | Familial cancers are defined as syndromes clustering cancers in a pedigree and encompass monogenic disorders and multifactorial conditions. Clinically, monogenic disorders are now treated as hereditary colorectal cancers, such as Lynch syndrome and familial adenomatous polyposis. It is essential to provide appropriate information about cancer inheritance and genome alterations and to make provisions for susceptibility to colorectal and other cancers in genetic counseling for hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes. Genetic testing should be performed in the process of genetic counseling. It is also important that patients and at-risk relatives can receive medical consultation, including psychosocial support, throughout their lives. In many cases, considerable time is required for the sharing of genetic information among relatives and for recommending other family members to receive medical checkups. Whether the process goes well or not depends on the relations among the individuals concerned. Furthermore, medical insurance does not cover medical surveillance for mutation carriers. It is thus difficult to maintain compliance with regular medical examinations. Jobs on cancer in genetic counseling has been expanding in the United States. Genetic counseling can also be the source of genome information such as personal sensitivities or side effects to anticancer drugs. |
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