Prostate cancer genetics podcast series features medical oncologists, genetic counselors, and a patient

In this video, Stacy Loeb, MD, MSc, and Veda Giri, MD, describe the contents of a new podcast series that offers information on genetic testing for prostate cancer. A paper detailing patient reception to the podcasts was recently published in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases (https://rdcu.be/c3UEl), and new episodes of the podcast will drop on Tuesdays (https://open.spotify.com/show/4FYxW2zUgJmW8wkVbiOXBb?si=dca177dda31443f6).

Giri is division chief of Clinical Cancer Genetics for Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer and assistant director of Clinical Cancer Genetics for Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut. Loeb is a professor in the departments of urology and population health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, New York.

Transcript:

Loeb: So far there are 6 episodes. Two [feature] medical oncologists talking about the impact that genetics has for precision management of prostate cancer and also how it ties in with syndromes that run in families like hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome and Lynch syndrome. There are 2 episodes with genetic counselors. Those are very interesting because they talk about what happens in genetic counseling sessions, what are the different types of genetic tests, and in particular, what is different about the direct-to-consumer tests that people can do at home like 23andme compared with the tests that would be ordered in a clinical setting for cancer genetics. Finally, there are 2 that are personal narratives with a patient and his son to talk about their experience going through the process, what it was like getting the counseling and testing and how they felt when they found out that they were BRCA2 carriers and the impact that that had for their life. So I think this is a nice cluster of podcasts that really go at this from different angles, from the personal aspect all the way through to the nuts and bolts and the clinical implications.

Giri: Yes, and I think the personal stories of the patient and his son are very impactful, and I think they bring an important angle to this field, which is when we do genetic testing for males in the context of prostate cancer, we can uncover genetic information like in BRCA1 or BRCA2, [which are] classically thought of as gene mutations associated with breast and ovarian cancer risk for females, but how important it is for males to also think about this and thinking of family history of cancers in general, across gender [and] across generations. Those things were really highlighted in the patient stories.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.