Abstract

ALVAREZ-GOMEZ, Rosa María; VARGAS-HUICHOCHEA, Ingrid; HERRERA-MONTALVO, Luis A.  and  ALVAREZ-DEL RIO, María Asunción. The informed consent for hereditary cancer. Gac. mex. oncol. [online]. 2023, vol.22, n.1, pp.34-40.  Epub June 12, 2023. ISSN 2565-005X.  https://doi.org/10.24875/j.gamo.22000016.

The term Informed Consent (IC) refers to the indispensable communicative process for the medical and research act, where a person approves the performance of diagnostic and/or therapeutic actions, or involvement in a research with full comprehension of the objective, benefits, limitations and potential complications of the decision. The IC involves indispensable ethical elements: a) information, sufficient and clear to facilitate its understanding; b) the capacity of the person invited to make decisions, being physically, mentally and legally competent, and c) the voluntariness of the process, for a decision free of coercion. For cancer predisposition molecular testing, IC bioethical challenges have been documented, for example: clarification of complex information, results of future relevance for health and family, the ownership of the result, and the uncertainty value of certain results, among others. There is a convergence of IC with genetic counseling, which aims to educate about inherited diseases. Their apparent similarity has limited the optimal performance of one or the other processes, restraining their respective benefits. The present review seeks to provide an overview of the status of IC in hereditary cancer, as cardinal point for improve its application.

Keywords : Hereditary cancer; Cancer research; Informed consent; Bioethics.

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