Empowering you to live a healthier life
Certain types of cancer seem to run in families, this can be known as a hereditary cancer. Genetic counseling at WellSpan Cancer Centers can help you and your family understand if you have an increased risk of certain inheritable cancers. This information can help you be aware of risk factors, stay aware of cancer detection options, and take measures to help reduce your risks of developing these cancers. Sometimes genetic test results can impact treatment options, such as surgery or chemotherapy. WellSpan genetic counselors work closely with you to deliver a customized assessment and create a plan of action, if needed.
When you choose WellSpan for your genetic counseling, you are choosing a partner who will guide, educate, coordinate and provide individualized care each step of the way. We also offer genetic counseling services via telemedicine (secure video conferencing) for your increased convenience.
Conditions Treated
WellSpan offers cancer risk counseling and testing services for many cancers, including, but not limited to:
How We Can Help
WellSpan genetic counselors offer comprehensive services for understanding your hereditary cancer risk, such as:
- Collect detailed family history information
- Identify which family member can give us the most information from genetic testing
- Identify who can benefit from testing, including children, siblings and/or cousins
- Discuss and explain your personalized cancer screening and prevention options
- Determine the most appropriate genetic test(s) for you and your family
- Interpret complex genetic test results, so you understand what they mean for you
- Help you and your healthcare team understand and apply genetic test results to your medical care decisions, now and for the future
- Connect you to supportive, informative and research-related resources
Who should consider hereditary cancer testing?
You may want to consider undergoing a genetic evaluation for cancer if you have been diagnosed with certain cancers – such as breast or colon – at a young age, or have a significant family history of cancer. A significant family history may include:
- Relatives diagnosed with cancer before they reached the age of 50
- Multiple family members with the same or related cancers (such as breast and/or ovarian)
- Family member(s) with a rare cancer (such as male breast cancer)
- A relative with a known genetic mutation in a cancer predisposition gene (such as BRCA1/2)
Our genetic counselors are able to meet with you in person or via secure video conferencing. Sometimes, genetic testing results can impact treatment and, using telemedicine, our genetic counselors can meet with you more quickly than if you had to schedule an appointment to come into one of our centers.
Locations
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The values shown are the median, or the middle number in the set of all the wait times collected for the previous 15 minutes.
Wait times can be influenced by many factors and should be considered estimates only.
