“It’s Not if I Get Cancer, It’s when I Get Cancer”: BRCA-Positive Patients’ (Un)certain Health Experiences Regarding Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2016
Keywords
genetic risk, BRCA, hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, communication
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.06.039
Abstract
Rationale: Women with a harmful mutation in the BReast CAncer (BRCA) gene are at significantly increased risk of developing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) during their lifetime, compared to those without. Such patients—with a genetic predisposition to develop cancer but who have not yet been diagnosed with cancer—live in a constant state of uncertainty and wonder not if they might get cancer but when.
Objective: Framed by uncertainty management theory, the purpose of this study was to explore BRCA-positive patients’ health experiences after testing positive for the BRCA genetic mutation, specifically identifying their sources of uncertainty.
Methods: Thirty-four, qualitative interviews were conducted with female patients. Participants responded to online research postings on the non-profit organization Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered’s (FORCE) message board and social media pages as well as HBOC-specific Facebook groups. The interview data were coded using the constant comparison method.
Results: Two major themes representing BRCA-positive patients’ sources of uncertainty regarding their genetic predisposition and health experiences emerged from the data. Medical uncertainty included the following three subthemes: the unknown future, medical appointments, and personal cancer scares. Familial uncertainty encompassed the subthemes traumatic family cancer memories and motherhood.
Conclusions: Overall, the study supports and extends existing research on uncertainty—revealing uncertainty is inherent in BRCA-positive patients’ health experiences—and offers new insight regarding uncertainty management and HBOC risk.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Social Science & Medicine, v. 163, p. 21-27
Scholar Commons Citation
Dean, Marleah, "“It’s Not if I Get Cancer, It’s when I Get Cancer”: BRCA-Positive Patients’ (Un)certain Health Experiences Regarding Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk" (2016). Communication Faculty Publications. 872.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/spe_facpub/872
