High-Risk Hereditary Cancer Program

Good health requires planning and care, including understanding your cancer risk. We are committed to proactive care by providing you with the best evaluation tools available and our services include a specialized program to identify and monitor patients at high risk for developing certain types of cancer.

Hereditary Cancer Screening

The first step to determining risk is taking the Hereditary Cancer Risk Survey. This questionnaire allows you to answer questions online in the privacy of your own home to build an early picture of cancer risk. If your answers indicate the possibility of an elevated risk, you will have the option of referring your results to a Cape Cod Healthcare genetic specialist.

Risk Consultation and Genetic Testing

As part of our services, a trained clinician who specializes in genetics is available for a consultation appointment to review familial and hereditary cancer risk, and for further education and counseling about genetic testing.

In assessing familial risk, patients meet with this clinician to build a history of cancer occurrences within their family – another indication of an individual’s risk. If the assessment indicates high risk, further testing is offered.

Patients found to have familial high risk – defined as greater than 20% lifetime risk of developing cancer based on risk calculations – or those with a genetic mutation for breast or ovarian cancer – are enrolled automatically in our high-risk program, designed to provide a more intensive monitoring and screening.

High-risk determination is based on family history of certain cancers, and personal factors. Among them are:

To determine if a patient is at high-risk for breast cancer, additional factors include:

Knowledge of your cancer risk can help you, along with your physician, plan a long-term approach to preventive health, additional screenings or other treatments.