Nurse practitioners have a vital role in achieving health equity in clinical cancer genetics

Long-standing and persistent racial inequities exist in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. Genetic medicine has the promise to significantly advance the identification of at-risk individuals and facilitate prevention, early detection, and treatment of cancer. Genetic testing is increasingly becoming incorporated into the screening-to-treatment continuum of care for cancer. Although genetic technologies are relatively new to the cancer care landscape, racial inequities already exist in awareness, access, referral, and uptake. Nurses play a vital role in achieving health equity, but success requires that nurses understand, recognize and take action to overcome the factors that have fostered health inequities.