Whitney F. Espinel

Whitney F. Espinel, CGC, MS

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Adjunct - Internal Medicine , Midlevel - Huntsman Cancer Institute , Adjunct - Population Health Sciences

Divisions: Oncology

Research Interests

  • BRCA1/2 (Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome)
  • Breast Cancer Genetics
  • Cancer Genetics
  • Cancer Clinical Genetics Communication

Whitney Espinel is a board-certified genetic counselor with a master’s degree in human genetics and genetic counseling from Emory University and a bachelors and master's degree from Brigham Young University in psychology. She joined Huntsman Cancer Institute in 2016. She specializes in assessing genetic risk factors for breast and ovarian cancer in individuals and families. She currently works in Huntsman Cancer Institute's High Risk Breast Cancer Clinic where she helps follow women with genetic mutations including BRCA1/2, ATM, CHEK2, PALB2. She also works on multiple research projects aimed at expanding genetic risk assessment into new populations as well as comparing somatic and germline test results in oncology patients.

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Kaphingst KA, Kohlmann W, Chambers RL, Goodman MS, Bradshaw R, Chan PA, Chavez-Yenter D, Colonna SV, Espinel WF, Everett JN, Gammon A, Goldberg ER, Gonzalez J, Hagerty KJ, Hess R, Kehoe K, Kessler C, Kimball KE, Loomis S, Martinez TR, Monahan R, Schiffman JD, Temares D, Tobik K, Wetter DW, Mann DM, Kawamoto K, Del Fiol G, Buys SS, Ginsburg O, BRIDGE research team (2021). Comparing models of delivery for cancer genetics services among patients receiving primary care who meet criteria for genetic evaluation in two healthcare systems: BRIDGE randomized controlled trial. BMC Health Serv Res, 21(1), 542. (Read full article)
  2. Sutherland N, Espinel W, Grotzke M, Colonna S (2020). Unanswered Questions: Hereditary breast and gynecological cancer risk assessment in transgender adolescents and young adults. J Genet Couns, 29(4), 625-633. (Read full article)
  3. Greenberg S, Buys SS, Edwards SL, Espinel W, Fraser A, Gammon A, Hafen B, Herget KA, Kohlmann W, Roundy C, Sweeney C (2019). Population prevalence of individuals meeting criteria for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer testing. Cancer Med, 8(15), 6789-6798. (Read full article)
  4. Espinel W, Charen K, Huddleston L, Visootsak J, Sherman S (2015). Improving Health Education for Women Who Carry an FMR1 Premutation. J Genet Couns, 25(2), 228-38. (Read full article)
  5. Allen EG, Grus WE, Narayan S, Espinel W, Sherman SL (2014). Approaches to identify genetic variants that influence the risk for onset of fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency (FXPOI): a preliminary study. Front Genet, 5, 260. (Read full article)

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