Australians prefer not to know familial cancer risk

New research shows that 60 per cent of Australians who are at increased risk of cancer due to a gene variation which runs in their family are failing to take advantage of genetic tests which could flag-up their need for life-saving preventative measures, such as regular screening. Dr Graeme Suthers, head of the familial cancer unit at North Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital, highlighted the findings of his research at the Clinical Oncological Society for Australia (COSA) annual meeting in Adelaide last week.

Dr Suthers believes that many of the 5000 familial cancer cases arising in Australia each year could be prevented if a greater proportion of those with a strong family history of cancer were to come forward for genetic testing. 'The potential for reducing cancer burden is enormous', he said. 'We could, for example, prevent almost all the deaths from familial bowel cancer by identifying individuals at risk and giving them regular colonoscopies to pick up polyps or early stage cancer'. Yet even when a cancer-causing gene is identified in a relative, the majority of family members choose not to be tested to find out if they are too at increased risk, research shows.

COSA president Professor Goldstein highlighted that modern screening and early detection methods have already been shown to significantly reduce cancer deaths and boost survival rates. 'More than 60 per cent of people diagnosed with cancer in Australia today will be alive in five years,' he said. But those at high-risk stand to benefit most, he said. 'This figure would be far higher among people at high risk of familial cancer if they sought the benefits of attending a family cancer centre.'

Dr Suthers said that further research into the reasons why at-risk individuals turn down opportunities for genetic testing, along with reorganisation of the health system to take into account the availability of new genetic technologies, was urgently needed to allow the life-saving potential of such technologies to be realised in practice.