Familial Breast and Ovarian Cancer

Cancer genetics is a new field where medical knowledge is developing rapidly, and there is a continuing need to assess the implications of new research into the genetic aspects of breast and ovarian cancer for clinical management.
Clearly, many individuals have a family history of cancer, but only a small proportion have inherited genes conferring a high risk of developing specific cancers. The development of services to identify individuals at high risk for genetic assessment/testing and management, and to oVer those at moderately increased risk appropriate surveillance and follow-up for cancer, is a major organizational challenge which must be shared between clinicians at all levels – from primary care to the specialist geneticist.
Because this field is developing so rapidly, there are scanty up-to-date, concise and accessible sources of information to which interested professionals (whether clinical geneticists, surgeons, oncologists, psychologists or other professionals) can turn. This book has been written to address this.