Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Familial Cancer https://doi.org/10.1007/s10689-018-0101-7 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Interest in, willingness-to-pay for and willingness-to-recommend genetic testing for prostate cancer among afected men after radical prostatectomy Marcel Mayer 1  · Katharina Selig 2  · Frank Tüttelmann 3  · Andreas Dinkel 4  · Jürgen E. Gschwend 1  · Kathleen Herkommer 1 © Springer Nature B.V. 2018 Abstract Knowledge about interest in genetic testing and willingness-to-pay for a genetic test among men afected from prostate cancer (PCa) is limited. This study aimed to gain insight into men’s attitudes in genetic testing for PCa. 4699 men with PCa from the German multicenter prospective database “Familial Prostate Cancer” were included. Interest in, Willingness-to- pay for and Willingness-to-recommend a genetic test for PCa were quantifed. Associations with several sociodemographic and psychosocial variables were evaluated by logistic regression. 76.8% of the afected men with a median follow-up of 12.9 years were interested in a genetic test for PCa. Newly identifed variables signifcantly associated with interest were having sons (OR 1.66, p < 0.001) and a high perceived severity of the PCa (OR 1.40, p < 0.001). 19% of men were willing to pay more than 500 € for a genetic test. Men with higher education, men with a better self-reported economic situation and men with a lethal PCa in their family were more likely to be willing to pay a larger sum for a test. 84.9% of men were willing to recommend a test to their relatives. Interest in genetic testing for PCa among afected men was generally high with most men willing to recommend a test to their relatives. Various characteristics associated with interest and willingness-to-pay larger sums for genetic testing were uncovered and need to be addressed when designing both future educational material and genetic tests for PCa. Keywords Prostate cancer · Genetic testing · Genomic testing · Interest · Family history Background Prostate cancer (PCa) remains the most common non-cuta- neous cancer among men in Germany and in the United States. Lifetime risk for developing PCa in men is 12.8% in Germany and 12.9% in the United States [1–3]. Established risk factors for developing PCa are higher age [4], African American ethnicity [5] and positive family history of PCa [6]. Men with a frst-degree relative diag- nosed with PCa have a two to threefold increased risk for the disease and men from hereditary prostate cancer (HPC) families show an increase of risk up to sevenfold [7, 8]. The widely used defnition of an HPC family by Carter defnes it as (1) at least three afected frst-degree relatives with PCa or (2) an afected man in each of three successive generations or (3) two afected frst-degree relatives diagnosed with PCa younger than 55 years [9]. Although shared environment cannot be excluded as an explanation for familial aggregation, genetic susceptibility Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10689-018-0101-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Kathleen Herkommer kathleen.herkommer@tum.de 1 Department of Urology, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Ismaninger Str. 22, 81675 Munich, Germany 2 Department of Mathematics, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstr. 3, 85748 Garching, Germany 3 Institute of Human Genetics, University of Münster, Vesaliusweg 12-14, 48149 Münster, Germany 4 Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Langerstr. 3, 81675 Munich, Germany