Additional Information for Health Care Providers:

-  Development of a Risk Assessment Clinic

-  Forms for Health Care Professionals

-  Large Scale Identification of Patients At High Risk Of Being Part Of Hereditary Cancer Families

-  Prophylactic Surgery and Inherited Cancer Predisposition

-  Cost-Effectiveness of the Identification of Women at High Risk for the Development of Breast and Ovarian Cancer

-  Guidelines for Breast and Ovarian Cancer Genetic Susceptibility Testing

-  Slide Set

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Massachussetts General Hospital Cancer Services

How do we integrate our new understanding of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer into clinical practice? The challenges inherent include, but are not limited to:

  How do we identify patients at risk?
  How do we manage them medically once they are identified?
  Who should undergo genetic testing and how should it be accomplished?
  How do we measure our success in meeting these challenges?

The purpose of this section is to discuss how the Breast & Ovarian Cancer Genetics & Risk Assessment Program at the Massachussetts General Hospital has begun to address some of these issues. This area is meant to share ideas and approaches with others facing the same issues. We would like to hear your opinions regarding our approach; suggestions on how to improve; and approaches used at your institution.

The materials listed on this page are made available to other health care professionals, who are in the process of developing Breast & Ovarian Cancer Genetics & Risk Assessment Programs, or who are interested in enhancing their ability to identify women at high risk of breast or ovarian cancer.

These materials are currently being utilized at the Massachussetts General Hospital Medical Center, but they no means represent a final document as to how this needs to be accomplished. Health care professionals are welcome to make use of these materials to help in their efforts to better care for women at high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Comments and modifications to these materials should be addressed to us so that we may learn together.

Non-health care professionals are, of course, welcome to review these materials:

Development of a Risk Assessment Clinic

This is a modification of a book chapter published in Vogel VG, ed. Management of Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer. Boston: Blackwell Science, Inc. which outlines our approach to the development of a Breast & Ovarian Cancer Genetics & Risk Assessment Program.

Data Forms for a Breast & Ovarian Cancer Genetics & Risk Assessment Program:

The following forms can be downloaded and modified as you see fit. These data-collection forms are being used in our Breast & Ovarian Cancer Genetics & Risk Assessment Program.

Large Scale Identification Of Patients At High Risk Of Being Part Of Hereditary Breast Cancer Or Breast/Ovarian Cancer Families:

Due to a great variety of patterns associated with familial cancer, identification of high risk patients currently requires the subjective review of extensive pedigrees by experts. Our purpose was to identify a set of objective questions that would allow triaging of pedigrees by likelihood of yielding significant family histories.

Prophylactic Surgery for Women at risk of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer:

This is a modification of a book chapter that reviews our understanding and approach to prophylactic surgery.

The Cost Effectiveness of Genetic Testing:

This is a modification of a book chapter that discusses the cost benefit analysis of identification of high-risk women and the utilization of genetic testing.

Guidelines for Genetic Testing at the Massachussetts General Hospital Medical Center:

These are the guidelines we utilize for genetic testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer outside of political protocols. We have not done genetic testing outside of a research protocol to date.

Included is a sample of the consent form we use for genetic testing outside political protocols.

We hope you find these materials useful. Please let us know how they have worked for you and what you feel could be improved.

Slide Set

To enhance our educational efforts for the public and health care providers, the Massachussetts General Hospital Breast & Ovarian Cancer Genetics & Risk Assessment Program has developed a comprehensive slide set. It covers most of the information in this site, and we have found it very useful. You are welcome to download and use the slides for presentations. The file includes a script for the slide presentation under "Notes Pages View" We ask that you do not modify the slides, do not remove the credits from the slide stating "The Massachussetts General Hospital," and do not use the imagess in any publications without express written permission.