IN RESPONSE:
We appreciate the opinions expressed by the NSGC Familial Cancer Risk Counseling Special Interest Group, but we respectfully disagree that a major revision of the patient summary accompanying the USPSTF recommendation is warranted. The intent of the summary is to reflect the content of the recommendation statement. The NSGC's first and fourth comments pertain to genetic counseling of men and counseling of women with a personal history of breast or ovarian cancer. These issues are beyond the scope of the USPSTF recommendation. Although the NSGC believes that the summary is misleading with respect to the potential harms of screening, the editors believe that the summary is accurate when it states, "...since not all women who have a BRCA mutation develop cancer, identification of mutations may also needlessly expose women to anxiety, insurance problems, or unnecessary procedures." With respect to the third comment, the version of the summary on Annals.org has been corrected to use the word "or," not "and," to describe the characteristics of high-risk women of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. A correction also appears in this issue.