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Primary Care

How women with a family history of breast cancer and their general practitioners act on genetic advice in general practice: prospective longitudinal study

BMJ 2001; 322 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.322.7277.26 (Published 06 January 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;322:26
  1. Geertruida H de Bock, epidemiologista (g.h.de_bock@lumc.nl),
  2. Christi J van Asperen, clinical geneticistb,
  3. Josephine M de Vries, medical studentc,
  4. George C H A Hageman, general practitionerd,
  5. Machiel P Springer, professorc,
  6. Job Kievit, professora
  1. a Department of Medical Decision Making, Leiden University Medical Centre, PO Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, Netherlands
  2. b Department of Clinical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Centre
  3. c Department of General Practice, Leiden University Medical Centre
  4. d “Wantveld” Health Care Centre, Noordwijk, Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to: G H de Bock
  • Accepted 5 July 2000

The most important risk factor for breast cancer, besides advanced age, is a family history of breast cancer. General practitioners play an important role in identifying women who are at increased risk of breast cancer,1 especially women who are too young to be eligible for population screening. In a prospective longitudinal study with three years of follow up, we studied women's compliance with advice provided by their general practitioner that was based on assessment of genetic risk and whether this genetic advice was in line with the advice of a clinical geneticist.

Participants, methods, and results

The women were patients at a primary healthcare centre linked to a university in the Netherlands. The centre, whose six general practitioners serve 11 500 patients, uses only computerised medical records. This system allows records of patients with specific risk factors and diseases to be marked and selected. A total of 2000 of the 2220 patients aged between 25 and …

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