Clinical Cancer Genetics: Risk Counseling and Management - Hardcover

Offit, Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471146552 ISBN 13: 9780471146551

Publisher: Wiley-Liss, 1998

Synopsis

With a Foreword by Richard D. Klausner, M.D., Director, National Cancer Institute and an Introduction by Henry T. Lynch, M.D., President, Hereditary Cancer Institute and Director, Creighton Cancer Center, Creighton University

When ordering a genetic test to determine whether a patient is susceptible to genetically transmitted cancers, physicians must be prepared to cope with profound medical, psychological, and ethical consequences. They, along with genetic counselors, nurses, psychologists, and other health professionals, must ensure that interpretations of test results are accurate, risk assessments are appropriate, and the communication of risk information is clear, helpful, and productive.

Clinical Cancer Genetics: Risk Counseling and Management is a comprehensive practical guide for health professionals responding to the growing demand for clinical cancer genetic services. Using examples drawn from actual cases and emphasizing fundamental principles throughout, this book outlines the scope of clinical cancer genetics and its underlying scientific concepts, reviews the most prevalent syndromes of cancer predisposition, and addresses major issues associated with genetic testing, including:

• Use of quantitative methods in risk counseling
• Methodologies of genetic testing
• Genetic testing of patients with cancer
• Reproductive risk counseling of cancer patients
• Special psychological, ethical, and legal challenges in clinical cancer genetics

Supplemented with practical materials used in cancer genetic counseling programs and an annotated table of selected human cancer predisposition syndromes, Clinical Cancer Genetics: Risk Counseling and Management equips health care professionals with a complete understanding of the benefits and limitations of genetic testing technologies and the ability to integrate genetic information into the management of patients who are at risk or already affected by cancer.

About this title

About the Author

KENNETH OFFIT is Chief of the Clinical Genetics Service in the Department of Human Genetics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He attended Princeton University and the Harvard Medical School and received an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Offit chaired the Subcommittee on Genetic Testing for Cancer Susceptibility of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and is a member of the Cancer Genetics Working Group of the National Cancer Institute.

From the Back Cover

With a Foreword by Richard D. Klausner, M.D., Director, National Cancer Institute and an Introduction by Henry T. Lynch, M.D., President, Hereditary Cancer Institute and Director, Creighton Cancer Center, Creighton University.

When ordering a genetic test to determine whether a patient is susceptible to genetically transmitted cancers, physicians must be prepared to cope with profound medical, psychological, and ethical consequences. They, along with genetic counselors, nurses, psychologists, and other health professionals, must ensure that interpretations of test results are accurate, risk assessments are appropriate, and the communication of risk information is clear, helpful, and productive.

Clinical Cancer Genetics: Risk Counseling and Management is a comprehensive practical guide for health professionals responding to the growing demand for clinical cancer genetic services. Using examples drawn from actual cases and emphasizing fundamental principles throughout, this book outlines the scope of clinical cancer genetics and its underlying scientific concepts, reviews the most prevalent syndromes of cancer predisposition, and addresses major issues associated with genetic testing, including:
* Use of quantitative methods in risk counseling
* Methodologies of genetic testing
* Genetic testing of patients with cancer
* Reproductive risk counseling of cancer patients
* Special psychological, ethical, and legal challenges in clinical cancer genetics

Supplemented with practical materials used in cancer genetic counseling programs and an annotated table of selected human cancer predisposition syndromes, Clinical Cancer Genetics: Risk Counseling and Management equips health care professionals with a complete understanding of the benefits and limitations of genetic testing technologies and the ability to integrate genetic information into the management of patients who are at risk or already affected by cancer.

Reviews

Dr. Offit's book on cancer genetics in clinical practice covers most of the essential material in this complex field in a highly effective and readable way. The role of genetics in cancer is put into context by a superb overview of the role of genetics in disease, and Offit reviews our current knowledge of specific forms of genetic predisposition in both common and rare cancers. Using this information, he is able to discuss the difficult aspects of applying this knowledge in the clinic, providing case histories to help illustrate problems. The chapter on quantitative risk assessment gives an excellent overview of how risk can be evaluated and expressed. In the final chapter, Dr. Offit tackles a "soft" but important component of cancer genetics in clinical practice: the psychology and ethics of counseling. This discussion inevitably contrasts with the scientific rigor of the rest of the book, but the importance of this component is made obvious and highlights the need for careful evaluation of counseling activities.

Two important aspects of this field receive little attention. Few doubt the impact that genes of relatively small effect will have on the field, particularly loci that have high-frequency, low-penetrance alleles and that interact with other genetic or environmental factors to contribute to the disease. In the future, it will be important to consider how to deal with such genetic effects that confer risks more relevant to populations than to individuals. The role of polymorphisms of genes involved in drug metabolism or responses is also not emphasized, although this is also a problem for the future.

This book summarizes the current state of cancer genetics in clinical practice and effectively captures the excitement in this fast-moving field. It clearly demonstrates how genetics can now be applied to clinical oncology and is a harbinger of things to come for all areas of medical practice.

Reviewed by John Bell, D.M.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Liss
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471146552
• ISBN 13: 9780471146551
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 440