In 1992, a new clinical service for women with a family history was established in Edinburgh. This runs a multidisciplinary clinic with surgeons, geneticists, breast screening radiologists, nurses and a psychologist. The service was one of the first of its kind to be set up in the UK. The introduction outlines the need for such a service, the evidence for breast screening, an outline of the knowledge of breast cancer genetics at the time at which the service was established and previous studies of health-related behaviours of women at increased risk of breast cancer because of a family history. The work included in this thesis relates to the first three years’ experience with the clinic. Areas to be evaluated will include the scale of demand for the service in terms of the demography of the women attending with respect to social class, risk profile and source of referral. comparison is made with other similar recently established clinics. Psychological assessment will be reported with particular attention being paid to any potential adverse effects of clinic attendance, improvement in knowledge of risk after genetic counselling and what steps women themselves are prepared to take in managing their increased risk of breast cancer. Accuracy of women’s own knowledge of their family history will be analysed together with any effects this may have on how they are to be managed in the future, and the availability of material for genetic research. A discussion of future developments takes place to include how the running of the clinic might be modified in the light of the initial three-year experience, taking into account advances which have been made in the fields of cancer genetics, breast screening and research ethics since the service was first set up.