Comparison of psychological distress for breast, ovarian and colorectal cancer predisposition in a Spanish sample at high risk of hereditary cancer.

OBJECTIVES: Although future treatments may speciically target the tumour phenotype, other factors should be included to confirm the efficacy of treatment and prevention strategies. The objective of this study was to compare sociodemographic characteristics and psychological distress for breast, ovarian and colorectal cancer predisposition syndrome in a sample at high risk of hereditary cancer. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was designed with 799 patients. The nonparametric test, with Kruskal-Wallis test, was used to compare three genetic cancer syndromes, with significant differences in sample size. RESULTS: There were no differences in cancer hereditary syndromes related to sociodemographic characteristics except sex, as breast/ovarian cancer mainly affects women. No group differences were observed for cancer worry (P = 0.17). Breast/ovarian cancer syndrome showed significantly higher scores in cognitive distress compared to colorectal cancer (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION: The differences in the distribution of sociodemographic characteristics in these hereditary cancer syndromes can help to better plan resources for patient care in genetic counselling units.

Psychiatric symptoms in a Spanish sample with hereditary cancer risk.

OBJECTIVE: An integral part of the genetic counselling process is the assessment of psychiatric morbidity. The objectives of this study were first to assess psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28items) in a Spanish sample at increased risk of hereditary cancer, and second evaluated the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and the contribution of socio-demographic and clinical characteristics to predict distress. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was designed with 766 patients. Psychometric analysis with exploratory factor analysis was performed. The influences of socio-demographic characteristics were investigated by multiple linear regression analyses. RESULTS: Factor analysis supported the four-factor solution of the original GHQ-28; Depression and Social dysfunction scales were more stable than Anxiety and Somatic symptom scales. Psychiatric morbidity was detected in 212 (27.9%) patients. The variables predicting psychiatric morbidity were gender, age, patient affected by cancer, previous psychiatric treatment, and patients with relatives affected by cancer. The higher prevalence of psychiatric symptoms was in the age group from 41 to 59 years (16.73%), women (24.37%), patients affected by cancer (19.89%), patients without previous psychiatric treatment (20.82%), and patients with relatives affected by cancer (21.74%). CONCLUSION: Screening psychological distress should consider socio-demographic and clinical characteristics with reference to improve the quality of care. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical trials identifier: NCT04428710.