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Such a reclassification may involve a clinically significant upgrade or downgrade in pathogenicity, which may have significant implications for medical management. To date, few studies have examined the psychosocial impact of a reclassification in a hereditary cancer syndrome context. To address this gap, semi-structured telephone interviews were performed with eighteen individuals who had a <jats:italic>BRCA1<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>BRCA2<\/jats:italic> or Lynch syndrome-related (<jats:italic>MLH1<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>MSH2<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>MSH6<\/jats:italic> or <jats:italic>PMS2)<\/jats:italic> gene variant reclassified. The interviews were analysed utilising an inductive, qualitative approach and emergent themes were identified by thematic analysis. Variable levels of recall amongst participants were found. Common motivations for initial testing included a significant personal and\/or family history of cancer and a desire to \u201cfind an answer\u201d. No individual whose uncertain result was upgraded reported negative psychosocial outcomes; most reported adapting to their reclassified result and appraised their genetic testing experience positively. However, individuals whose likely pathogenic\/pathogenic results were downgraded reported feelings of anger, shock and sadness post reclassification, highlighting that additional psychosocial support may be required for some. Genetic counselling issues and recommendations for clinical practice are outlined.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s12687-023-00644-0","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,3]],"date-time":"2023-04-03T21:02:36Z","timestamp":1680555756000},"page":"307-317","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Exploring the impact of the reclassification of a hereditary cancer syndrome gene variant: emerging themes from a qualitative study"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Laura","family":"Wedd","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Margaret","family":"Gleeson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bettina","family":"Meiser","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rosie","family":"O\u2019Shea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kristine","family":"Barlow-Stewart","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amanda B.","family":"Spurdle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paul","family":"James","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jane","family":"Fleming","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cassandra","family":"Nichols","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rachel","family":"Austin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elisa","family":"Cops","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Melissa","family":"Monnik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Judy","family":"Do","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rajneesh","family":"Kaur","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,3]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"644_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"155","DOI":"10.1007\/s10897-012-9547-1","volume":"22","author":"JL Berliner","year":"2013","unstructured":"Berliner JL, Fay AM, Cummings SA, Burnett B, Tillmanns T (2013) NSGC practice guideline: risk assessment and genetic counseling for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. 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Spurdle, Paul James, Jane Fleming, Cassandra Nichols, Rachel Austin, Elisa Cops, Melissa Monnik, Judy Do and Rajneesh Kaur declare that they have no conflict of interest. Bettina Meiser was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellowship Level B (ID 1078523). Part of this work was conducted to fulfil a degree requirement for LW.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Conflict of interest"}},{"value":"Bettina Meiser was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellowship Level B (ID 1078523).","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}},{"value":"All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.","order":5,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Human studies and informed consent"}},{"value":"This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.","order":6,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Animal studies"}}]}}