1515 Background: Adherence to cancer screening depends on the interplay between risk perception and convenience. For instance, high perceived risk is likely what motivates high-risk mutation carriers (HRMC) to adhere well to rather inconvenient BCSR. While the NCCN offers BCSR for moderate-risk genes, adherence in moderate-risk mutation carriers (MRMC) and non-carriers with negative multigene panels (NC) is unknown. Methods: Screening behavior was examined in 120 women (15 HRMC, 20 MRMC, 85 NC) 20-65 years old (y) without cancer who received genetic testing and counseling. The groups did not differ in age or family history (fhx). Medical records were reviewed pre- and post-testing to determine adherence. Average follow up was 15 months. Data were analyzed by Chi-squared test. Results: Prior to genetic testing, 93% of women were adherent to general population BCSR, and 58% were already screening in accordance with post-test counseled BCSR. Testing altered adherence to counseled BCSR for HRMC (p<0.01), but not for MRMC (p=0.21) or NC (p=0.86). HRMC had better post-test adherence than MRMC (p<0.05). Conclusions: MRMC are often told to follow similar BCSR to HRMC, namely annual mammogram and MRI, but MRMC may be less motivated to adhere to these BCSR due to lower risk perception. We found adherence was high in HRMC, likely due to high risk perception; intermediate in NC, likely due to manageable BCSR; and comparably low in MRMC, possibly because their risk perception was insufficient to motivate biannual imaging studies. Understanding how genetic testing influences adherence is essential to ensuring proper surveillance in high-risk women. [Table: see text]
PERSONALIZED MEDICINE: FROM SCIENCE TO PRACTICE