Genetic testing referral, uptake, and results in a program for women age 40 or younger with breast cancer.

Abstract

1542 Background: PYNK: Breast Cancer Program for Young Woman is a novel program started in 2008 at our center to optimize management and promote research for women ≤ age 40 newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Clinical and epidemiological data including cancer family history (FH) is prospectively collected on each consenting patient. As Toronto’s population is uniquely multiethnic we sought to determine BRCA testing eligibility, uptake and results for PYNK patients. Methods: Of the 145 consecutive patients, data were available for 109, of whom 2 had testing prior to diagnosis. Our provincial BRCA testing criteria are age < 35 at diagnosis; suspicious FH; or Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) and age < 50 at diagnosis. Results: Of the 107 previously untested patients, 40 were < 35 at diagnosis. In 5 of the other 67 testing eligibility could not be assessed. 66 of the 102 (65%) were eligible and of those 65 (98%) were offered referral for counseling. One declined counseling, 9 were not yet seen, 2 declined testing, and 53 were tested. Test results are available for 47 as follows: 30 (64%) no mutation, 4 (8%) variant of uncertain significance (VUS), 7(15%) BRCA1 mutations and 6 (13%) BRCA2 mutations including 1 of the 4 AJ women. Ethnicity of the other 12 mutation carriers was: 1 Hispanic, 2 European, 2 African, 4 Asians, 1 mix, 1 unknown and 1 not recorded. Two (15%) of the mutation carriers had no FH of breast or ovarian cancer. Four additional women opted for counseling and testing despite ineligibility and none had mutations. Conclusions: A specialized program for young women facilitates appropriate referral for genetic testing and encourages high testing uptake, which is important given the high prevalence of mutations (28% of tested women). Further research is necessary to assess the psychological and management impact of having a VUS on young women compared to their older counterparts.