Genetic counseling enhances patient empowerment in familial colorectal cancer

TOPLINE:

Genetic counseling for patients with familial colorectal cancer (fCRC) resulted in improved feelings of empowerment, decreased depression, and reduced emotional distress.

METHODOLOGY:

• The researchers enrolled 82 patients (mean age, 44 years; 52% women) who were affected by or at risk for fCRC (Lynch syndrome, associated polyposis conditions, other risk-associated pathogenic variants, and clinically defined fCRC).
• Participants were randomly assigned to receive either standard care or standard care plus genetic counseling.
• Measures included empowerment, anxiety, depression, knowledge, risk perception, emotional distress, screening/surveillance behaviors, perceived social support, decisional conflict, and quality of life.

TAKEAWAY:

• Genetic counseling had a significant effect on patient empowerment after the researchers controlled for precounseling empowerment scores (P = .0043) and depression scores (P = .025).
• Genetic counseling also led to significant improvement in anxiety (P = .04), depression (P = .03), emotional distress (P = .03), and knowledge about fCRC (P = .025).
• Emotional distress appeared to have a moderating effect; those with lower initial levels of emotional distress benefited more from genetic counseling in terms of empowerment (P = .016).

IN PRACTICE:

“Empowerment is particularly important for these patients, since not only does it help them feel they can make real, informed choices, but it also aids their ability to manage their feelings and make plans for the future,” Andrada Ciuca, PhD, with Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, said in a statement. “An interesting finding was that the more anxiety decreased after their counseling session, the greater the impact was on their empowerment. This highlights the importance of addressing emotional distress during genetic counselling.”

STUDY DETAILS:

The study was conducted by Dr. Ciuca and colleagues. The results were presented at the European Society of Human Genetics 2023 annual conference on June 11.

LIMITATIONS:

The study comprised 82 participants and focused specifically on fCRC.

DISCLOSURES:

No conflicts of interest were disclosed.

A version of this article originally appeared on Medscape.com.