Background

For Patients

Genetic testing is often advised for patients who develop certain cancers. This is currently done for bowel, womb, and ovarian cancer care in the NHS. Patients being offered genetic testing should receive clear and accurate information about what impacts genetic testing may have.

Currently,

genetic testing information is provided at a hospital appointment and genetic testing is usually done by a straightforward blood test

The DETECT-2 study

will see if genetic testing can be offered at home instead of in hospital. Genetic testing information will be given by a web-based decision aid – the ‘Web-App’. This can be on used on a smartphone, tablet, or a computer.

Participants will also have access to a ‘telephone helpline’ for counselling support, any queries and help as needed. Genetic testing will be done at home via a saliva (spit) genetic test instead of a blood test. The saliva genetic test is as good as the blood genetic test.

This study will investigate how many people accept genetic testing by direct-to-patient testing compared to traditional genetic testing. This study will also assess the impact of both types of testing in terms of satisfaction, quality-of-life, and mental well-being, measured by standard questionnaires.

The long-term goal of DETECT-2 is to determine if direct-to-patient genetic testing should be offered routinely by the NHS to patients diagnosed with cancer.