KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND MERITS OF CLINICAL GENOMICS AMONGST CANCER CLINICIANS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Genomic sequencing has increasingly been instituted to improve the understanding of molecular causes of cancer, and to help inform patient's diagnosis and treatment.There are several challenges to the integration of clinical sequencing into routine clinical practice in Africa, such as clinicians' attitude and literacy to genomics, and experience working with genomics.The aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge of genomic education amongst African cancer clinicians and their attitude towards adopting genetics in their practices.
METHODS We conducted a survey amongst cancer clinicians at a tertiary level hospital, in Lagos, Nigeria between September 2019 to April 2020.The survey instrument was an I 8-item self-report questionnaire which comprised of six sections. Some sections were categorised, and each category ranked.
RESULTS A total of 35 participants took part in the study with predominantly 77% male respondents. Majority (57%) of the re-spondents were > 5 years in the practice of oncology. Majority (60%) of the respondents ranked themselves as "knowl-edgeable" to basic genetics and less knowledgeable to advance genetics. 69% of respondents rated sufficiency of genomic education as low in medical schools and clinical training institutions. 83 — 89% of respondents ranked the im-portance of genomics to clinical practice as major but clinicians' attitudes towards the clinical application of genomics remains sceptical.
CONCLUSION While there were limitations to this study, our results showed overwhelming support for the introduction of genomics in today's cancer diagnostics and treatment.