Veda Giri, MD, on patient-reported outcomes with prostate cancer genetic testing

Recent results from the PROGRESS Registry offer insights into men’s experience with genetic testing for prostate cancer.¹ In a recent interview with Urology Times®, senior author Veda N. Giri, MD, discusses the design and key findings from the study.

Giri is a professor of internal medicine (medical oncology) at Yale School of Medicine as well as the Director of the Early Onset Cancer Program and Assistant Director of the Clinical Cancer Genetics Program at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut.

The study included a total of 414 participants, of whom 88% were White, 6% were Asian, 3% were Black, and 3% were mixed/other.

Across the entire cohort, 46.9% of participants has prostate cancer, and 27.9% had genetic results that were positive (pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants/mutations). Men who had a genetic mutation reported higher genomic testing benefit scores (β = .30; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.59) and importance of genomic testing (β = .34; 95% CI, 0.08 to 0.61).

Results from covariate-adjusted models also showed that satisfaction scores were higher among participants who underwent pretest counseling by phone (β = 1.31; 95% CI, 0.26 to 2.36) or in a discussion with a doctor (β = 1.25; 95% CI, 0.38 to 2.12). Further, pretest counseling by phone was also associated with lower decisional conflict scores (β = -3.76; 95% CI, -7.28 to -0.24).

Asian American patients reported lower satisfaction (β = -2.91; 95% CI, -4.34 to -1.48) and higher decisional conflict scores (β = 8.93; 95% CI, 4.36 to 13.51).

On this finding, Giri added, “One thing to keep in mind is that there was only about 6% or so of the cohort that were Asian American, so we don't want to be drawing too concrete conclusions based on this information, but I do think it signal[s] that we have to do some dedicated studies in more diverse racially/ethnic populations, because there may be other factors that are influencing their decision making for genetic testing and their experience with it, whether it’s cultural, language, their overview of cancer in general, a view of cancer stigma.”

REFERENCE

1. Loeb S, Keith SW, Gross L, et al. Patient-Reported Outcomes From Males Regarding Germline Testing for Prostate Cancer: Results From the PROGRESS Registry. JCO Precis Oncol. 2025:9:e2500571. doi: 10.1200/PO-25-00571