The development of genomic technologies has seemed almost magical. Excitement about it, both in medicine and among the public, stems from the belief that genomic techniques will illuminate the causes ...of health and disease, will lead to effective interventions for both rare and common genetic conditions, and will inform reproductive decision‐making. Novel diagnostic tools, however, are often deployed before targeted therapies are developed, tested, or available and before their psychosocial implications are explored. Newer technologies such as prenatal whole exome screening are seen as offering “decisional autonomy” to expectant parents, although such technologies identify information about genetic sequencing that may not have clear meaning. The “therapeutic gap” between the ability to conduct genetic sequencing and the ability to fully understand what the test results mean, much less what treatments to offer, leaves families with complex and unclear information they cannot act upon with confidence during pregnancy. In this essay, we will consider the psychosocial and ethical implications of such assumptions—and of the uncertain information produced by these technologies—for individuals and families and for societal aspects such as medical service usage and demographic inequities.
Objectives
Adolescents and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors face unique medical and psychosocial sequalae, including chronic health conditions, late effects of treatment and fear of recurrence. The ...meaning of cancer survivorship may be further complicated for AYAs with hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes. This study used a patient‐centered framework to investigate how AYAs with Li‐Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) consider cancer survivorship.
Methods
An interprofessional team conducted 30 semi‐structured interviews with AYAs (aged 18–41, mean 31 years) enrolled in the National Cancer Institute's LFS Study (NCT01443468). Twenty had experienced at least one cancer diagnosis. Interview data were thematically analyzed by an inter‐professional team using interpretive description and grounded theory methods.
Findings
Participants viewed “survivorship” as a period marked by no evidence of formerly diagnosed disease. By contrast, participants felt the label “survivor” was tenuous since LFS is characterized by multiple primary malignancies and uncertainty about intervals between one diagnosis and the next. Many AYAs viewed survivorship as requiring a high degree of suffering. Though many personally rejected “survivor” identities, almost all articulated its various functions including positive, negative, and more complicated connotations. Instead, they chose language to represent a range of beliefs about survival, longevity, prognosis, and activism.
Conclusions
AYAs with LFS struggle with the term “survivor” due to their multi‐organ cancer risk, short intervals between malignancies, and evolving identities. Loved ones' cancer‐related suffering informed perspectives on survivorship. Survivorship care for AYAs with cancer risk syndromes requires interprofessional interventions that address their unique biomedical and psychosocial needs.
Li‐Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS) is a hereditary disorder that confers an approximately 90% lifetime risk of cancer and requires comprehensive lifetime cancer screening. We explored healthcare roles for ...managing LFS‐related cancer risks and treatments that were assumed by parents, adolescents, and adult children. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 23 families. Family groupings were comprised of 2–5 members, with the younger generation in each family ranging in age from 7 to 40 years. Using grounded theory methods, we conducted open and focused coding of interview transcript content. Family members described how the role of health leader was implemented in their family, as well as factors such as maturation of a child or death of a member that determined who assumed particular roles and how these roles shifted over time. They often expressed collective responsibility for helping relatives understand LFS and implement appropriate cancer risk management. Members demonstrated their health role by attending others’ medical appointments for support or information gathering. The health leader role was intergenerational and provided the family necessary support in navigating complicated healthcare decisions. Our findings provide insight into healthcare providers regarding how LFS patients and their relatives develop unique medical decision‐making and caring roles influenced by the hereditary nature of LFS, and how these roles change over time. Providers who are attuned to family role dynamics may be better able to meet relatives’ psychosocial and medical needs by understanding how living with LFS influences the family system’s functioning and facilitating members’ support for each other.
RESUMEN
El síndrome de Li‐Fraumeni (LFS) es un trastorno hereditario que concede aproximadamente un 90 % de riesgo durante toda la vida de contraer cáncer y exige exámenes completos para la detección del cáncer de por vida. Analizamos los roles sanitarios a la hora de manejar los riesgos y los tratamientos de cáncer relacionados con el LFS que asumieron los padres, los adolescentes y los hijos adultos. Se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas con 23 familias. Los agrupamientos familiares estaban compuestos por entre 2 y 5 familiares, donde la edad de la generación más joven de cada familia oscilaba entre 7 y 40 años. Utilizando los métodos de la teoría fundamentada, realizamos una codificación abierta y centrada del contenido de la transcripción de la entrevista. Los miembros de la familia describieron cómo se implementó el rol de jefe de la salud en su familia, así como factores como la maduración de un niño o la muerte de un miembro que determinaron quiénes asumieron roles particulares y cómo estos roles cambiaron con el tiempo. Con frecuencia ellos expresaron la responsabilidad colectiva de ayudar a los familiares a comprender el LFS y a implementar el manejo adecuado del riesgo de contraer cáncer. Los familiares demostraron sus roles sanitarios asistiendo a citas médicas de los demás para recibir apoyo u obtener información. El rol de jefe sanitario fue intergeneracional y proporcionó a la familia el apoyo necesario para manejarse ante decisiones complicadas sobre la asistencia sanitaria. Nuestros resultados brindan información para los prestadores de servicios médicos con respecto a cómo los pacientes de LFS y sus familiares desarrollan roles únicos para la toma de decisiones médicas y el cuidado influenciados por la índole hereditaria del LFS, y cómo estos roles cambian con el tiempo. Es posible que los prestadores que estén acostumbrados a la dinámica de roles familiares sean más capaces de satisfacer las necesidades psicosociales y médicas de los familiares si comprenden cómo vivir con LFS influye en el funcionamiento del sistema familiar y si facilitan el apoyo mutuo de los familiares.
摘要
李‐佛美尼综合症是一种遗传性的疾病，大概一生中有90%的患癌几率，它要求家庭成员终身接受综合性癌症筛查。本文研究医疗保健对管理李‐佛美尼综合症风险和治疗过程中所起的作用，这些风险和治疗均由家长，青少年和成年孩子们来承担着。参与研究的家庭有23个，采用半结构化的访谈。家庭的组成有2‐5个家庭成员，每个家庭的较年轻一代人年龄跨度7‐40岁。使用草根理论方法，我们针对访谈文稿进行了开放式和集中式解码。家庭成员描述了健康领袖的作用在家庭内如何实现的，还有孩子的成熟，某家庭成员的去世等因素，这些因素都决定了谁承担了什么角色，这些角色在一段时间范围内如何发生变化。他们通常会表达集体性的共同责任，帮助亲戚理解LFS症和实施合适的癌症风险管理。家庭成员通过陪同一起去就医来给与支持以及信息搜集的方式来实现他们的健康作用。健康领袖的作用是代际间的，提供了必要的支持给家庭，特别是在复杂的医疗保健方面的决定。我们的研究结果提供了健康医疗供给方的看法，主要是关于LFS病人和他们的亲戚如何作出特殊的医疗决策和发挥照料者的角色，这些都深受LFS遗传性特性的影响，和这些角色如何随着时间而发生变化。那些可以适应家庭角色动态变化的供给方可以较好地实现亲戚的社会心理和医疗的需要，主要是通过尽力理解承受LFS影响的家庭系统的功能，促进家庭成员们彼此的支持。
Families often express difficulty to their providers and request guidance regarding the task of communicating with children about potential adult-onset inherited cancer risks. This disclosure is ...often complicated by the parent’s ongoing adjustment to their mutation status, guilt at potential transmission of the mutation to the child, concern over inciting distress in children, and the varied capacities of children in the home to understand genetic information. Providers often do not have adequate resources to support or facilitate disclosure of genetic test results to children. Optimally, communication about inherited cancer risk is an open, ongoing process within the family. We recommend that parents tailor conversations to the child’s developmental, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral abilities to support comprehension. Based on well-established theories of child development, empirical research on family communication of hereditary cancer risk, and clinical counseling experience, we offer recommendations for parental disclosure of genetic risk to children, case examples with critical discussion of relevant topics, common child questions with sample scripted responses, and additional printed and online resources.
Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), a rare cancer syndrome caused by pathogenic germline variants in TP53, has serious implications for adolescents and young adults (AYAs; aged 15-39 years). The early-onset ...and multi-organ cancer risk associated with LFS means health professionals must concurrently contend with the developmental needs of individuals who are diagnosed from a young age, and recent changes in practice due to advances in whole-body cancer surveillance. To help understand how current practice meets the developmental needs of AYAs with, or at risk of, LFS, we conducted a national online survey to explore the experiences of health professionals who care for this population in Australia and New Zealand. Forty-three respondents completed the survey (56% genetic counselors), one-third of whom had facilitated predictive TP53 testing for minors (n = 14/43, 33%). In hypothetical scenarios describing 15-year-olds eligible for predictive TP53 testing, respondents were more supportive of testing for emotionally mature compared to immature minors (p = .009); and more supportive of adolescent wishes compared to parental wishes for testing (p = .020) when families held discordant views on testing. Genetic health professionals were more likely than oncology health professionals to address psychological (p = .017) and information needs about reproductive options for LFS during consultations than to refer them on (p = .004). All respondents supported comprehensive risk management for LFS, but noted important medical, logistical, and psychosocial limitations for AYAs. This study offers valuable insight into developmentally appropriate practices of Australasian health professionals who care for AYAs with, or at risk of, LFS. These findings suggest they may foster the autonomy of minors undergoing predictive TP53 genetic testing and be supportive of new whole-body risk management guidelines.
Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS) is characterized by risk of multiple primary malignancies in diverse sites, pediatric onset, near complete penetrance by age 70 years, limited options for prevention, and ...substantial uncertainty regarding disease manifestation and prognosis. Forty-five families, including 117 individuals aged 13–81 years, enrolled in the US National Cancer Institute’s Li-Fraumeni Syndrome Study completed 66 interviews regarding their LFS experiences. An interdisciplinary team used modified grounded theory to examine family distress regarding expectations of loss and change due to likely cancer diagnoses, and the consequences of this likelihood across physical, social, and emotional domains. Disease-free periods were characterized by fearful anticipation of diagnosis or recurrence, uncertainty regarding post-treatment quality of life, and planning for shifts in family dynamics to enable caregiving. The chronicity of waiting for these changes incited dread and inhibited effective coping with the pragmatic, emotional, and existential challenges of the syndrome. Consequently, families reported high burden on roles and resources and limited guidance to prepare for, or achieve resolution with, grief. Anticipatory loss, the experience of bereavement prior to an expected change, distinguishes hereditary cancer risk from a sporadic diagnosis. Such grief is often incomplete in impact or meaning, subjected to rapid or profound change as conditions worsen, and poorly understood. In this study, losses were compounded by profound uncertainty, a chronic feature of LFS, which compromised mourning. Long-term engagement of mental health providers with bereavement training, in partnership with genetics providers, can provide invaluable educational and psychological support to families as they navigate these implacable challenges.
Little is known about how nursing care at the end of a child's life impacts long-term parental bereavement. We aimed to explain, contextualize, and examine comparisons between quantitative trends in ...children's end-of-life care and parents' qualitative perceptions. We used a mixed methods design, combining quantitative data from the RESTORE clinical trial with qualitative interviews with bereaved parents. Patients who died during RESTORE were included in quantitative analyses. A subset of their parents was interviewed 7 to 11 years later. The quantitative analyses included 104 children. Eight parents were interviewed; 4 had a child die after cancer, and 4 had a child die after a complex chronic illness. Quantitatively, patients' pain and sedation scores were generally comfortable. Children died with multiple invasive devices in place. Parents' descriptions of their child's comfort and critical care requirements differed by illness trajectory (cancer, complex chronic illness). Parents' memories of their child's suffering aligned with peaks in clinical scores, rather than averages. Invasive devices and equipment altered parents' ability to make meaningful final memories with the dying child. Pediatric intensive care clinicians may need to broaden how they attend to dying children's pain and corresponding parental distress, as parents' memories of their dying child's suffering persist for years.
This study aims to explore how couples’ understanding of the nature and consequences of positive prenatal chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) results impacts decision-making and concern about ...pregnancy. We interviewed 28 women and 12 male partners after receiving positive results and analyzed the transcripts to assess their understanding and level of concern about the expected clinical implications of results. Participant descriptions were compared to the original laboratory interpretation. When diagnosed prenatally, couples’ understanding of the nature and consequences of copy number variants (CNVs) impacts decision-making and concern. Findings suggest women, but less so partners, generally understand the nature and clinical implications of prenatal CMA results. Couples feel reassured, perhaps sometimes falsely so, when a CNV is inherited from a “normal” parent and experience considerable uncertainty when a CNV is
de novo
, frequently precipitating a search for additional information and guidance. Five factors influenced participants’ concern including: the pattern of inheritance, type of possible phenotypic involvement, perceived manageability of outcomes, availability and strength of evidence about outcomes associated with the CNV, and provider messages about continuing the pregnancy. A good understanding of results is vital as couples decide whether or not to continue with their pregnancy and seek additional information to assist in pregnancy decision-making.
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