Sons of men with prostate cancer: their attitudes regarding possible inheritance of prostate cancer, screening, and genetic testing.

OBJECTIVES

To study attitudes regarding possible inheritance of prostate cancer among sons of men with prostate cancer.

METHODS

A questionnaire was sent to 69 men with prostate cancer and their 101 unaffected sons. All participants were also interviewed by telephone. Sociodemographic data were collected, as were data about the fathers' disease.

RESULTS

The response rate was high; 100 sons (99%) and 65 fathers (94%) answered all questions. Sixty of the sons claimed they had worries about having an increased risk of prostate cancer due to possible inheritance. About 90% of the sons wanted to know whether prostate cancer was inheritable (66 definitely and 24 probably), were positively inclined to undergo screening (65 definitely and 27 probably), and to undergo genetic testing (50 definitely and 41 probably), provided there had been multiple cases of prostate cancer in their family. An interest to know whether prostate cancer could be inherited was more frequent among sons with less than 12 years of education, worries about inheritance, younger age, a father treated with curative intent, and with children of their own, especially if sons. Interest in genetic testing was associated with less than 12 years of education and with worries about inheritance.

CONCLUSIONS

A large majority of healthy men with a family history of prostate cancer were interested in knowing whether the disease could be inherited and were positively inclined to undergo screening and genetic testing. Our findings indicate that genetic counseling and a screening program could have beneficial psychological effects in families with multiple cases of prostate cancer.