Dr. Mohler on Guidelines for Recording Family History in Prostate Cancer

James Mohler, MD, professor of oncology, associate director, senior vice president, Translational Research, chief, Inter-Institutional Academics, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses what information should be included in a family history, based on the updated National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for genetic testing in prostate cancer.

In the past, family histories have been limited, explains Mohler. A typical history in an electronic health record would express a positive or negative history, and potentially what relative had cancer, says Mohler.

However, if the patient’s relative had cancer, the family history should include the relative’s age of diagnosis, treatment received, whether they presented with or developed metastatic disease, and if they died from the disease, says Mohler. Moreover, the updated criteria also recommend including hereditary cancer mutations and syndromes, Ashkenazi Jewish status, and race.

Going forward, these criteria should be implemented in clinical practice to fully capture a patient’s family history, concludes Mohler.