Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2008, 27:75 http://www.jeccr.com/content/27/1/75 Table 3: Motivation for patient to choose not to pursue genetic counselling Reasons for discontinuing genetic counselling 1) The aim of the genetic testing is not clear 2) I do not feel able to face the stress of hospital visits 3) I am afraid of the consequences of any negative information, for me or my family 4) I do not feel it is fair to involve my family 5) I feel guilty towards my family 6) My family is against genetic testing 7) My partner is against genetic testing 8) I do not want to know if I have a genetic mutation which predisposes me to cancer 9) The test is a waste of time as it will not improve the quality of my life 10) The test is a waste of time as I already have cancer 11) The hospital is too far away 12) I do not have time to do all the visits needed for the genetic testing program 13) Having the test will not prevent me from getting cancer 14) I was not able to get an appointment with the doctor because the administration was unavailable 15) I was not able to get an appointment with the doctor because the phone-line was always engaged 16) The doctor was unavailable 17) I did not feel the medical staff was sufficently welcoming 18) I do not feel I can face the stress of having blood tests 19) I would not be able to tell my family any bad news 20) It would be to hard to know that I would probabely develop cancer 21) If I were to be a carrier of a mutation I could not stand the idea of undergoing frequent check-ups 22) I think early diagnosis is a waste of time Frequency Percentage 10 24 27 18 5 4 3 15 14 6 21 19 23 9 13 2 7 2 18 24 10 4 17,9 42,9 48,2 32,1 8,9 7,1 5,4 26,8 25,0 10,7 37,5 33,9 41,1 16,1 23,2 3,6 12,5 3,6 32,1 42,9 17,9 7,1 son for discontinuing counselling, and 39% held that it was impossible to obtain an appointment for the visits because the phone lines were always busy. Twelve percent maintained they did not have a good reception from the medical staff, 27% of the subjects had no desire to know whether or not they were predisposed to genetic mutation for breast or ovarian cancer. Amongst these individuals there was an average number of family members affected by cancer, significantly less than those who have a desire to know their likelihood of genetic risk (p = 0.004). Believing the test was a waste of time because it would not halt the disease, was given as the excuse for discontinuing counselling by 41%. This group encoun- tered significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression (p = 0.03; p = 0.02) than the subjects who felt that genetic testing was useful. Among the subjects whose motivation for discontinuing counselling was the idea that genetic Page 5 of 8 (page number not for citation purposes)