Risk stratification using genetic and/or other types of information could identify women at increased ovarian cancer risk. The aim of this study was to examine women’s potential reactions to ovarian cancer risk stratification. 1,017 women aged 45-75 years took part in an online experimental survey. Women were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions describing hypothetical personal results from ovarian cancer risk stratification, and asked to imagine they had received one of three results: (a) 5% risk due to SNPs and lifestyle factors; (b) 10% risk due to SNPs and lifestyle factors; (c) 10% risk due to a rare mutation in BRCA2. 83% of women indicated interest in having ovarian cancer risk assessment. After receiving their hypothetical risk estimates, 29% of women stated they would have risk-reducing surgery. Choosing risk-reducing surgery over other behavioural responses was associated with having higher surgery self-efficacy and perceived response-efficacy, but not with perceptions of disease threat, i.e. perceived risk or severity, or with experimental condition. A substantial proportion of women age 45-75 years may be open to the idea of surgery to reduce risk of ovarian cancer, even if their absolute lifetime risk is only increased to as little as 5 or 10%.
Prospective analyses of lifestyle factors related to energy balance and ovarian cancer risk by infiltration of tumor associated macrophages