title: Information needs of post-menopausal women with hormone receptor positive early-stage breast cancer considering adjuvant endocrine therapy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify questions that post-menopausal women with receptor-positive early-stage breast cancer want answered before their adjuvant-endocrine-therapy decision is made.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed patients eligible for adjuvant-endocrine therapy in the previous 3-18 months. Participants rated the importance of getting each of 95 questions answered before the decision is made (options: essential/desired/not important or no opinion/avoid). For each question rated "essential"/"desired", the participant also identified the purpose(s) for the answer: to help her understand, decide, plan, or other reason(s).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate was 55% (188/343). Participants rated a mean of 57 (range: 1-95) questions "essential", 80 (range: 1-95) "essential" or "desired", and 2 (range: 0-27) "avoid". Every question was "essential" to ≥31% of participants, and "essential"/"desired" to ≥63%. All but eleven questions were rated as "avoid" by ≥1 participant. The most frequent purposes for "essential" questions were to: understand their situations (mean 45, range: 0-95), decide (mean 18, range: 0-94), and plan (mean 13, range: 0-95).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many patients want a lot of information before this decision is made but there is wide variation within the group in both the number and in which questions they want answered.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patient education in this setting needs to be tailored to the needs of the individual patient.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Cancer Research Institute, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. deb.feldman-stewart@krcc.on.ca
authors.forename: Deb
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Feldman-Stewart
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Madarnas
authors.forename: Mihaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mates
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grunfeld
authors.forename: Shailendra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Carolan
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brundage
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000601:surgery; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D017698:Postmenopause; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases
keywords: Adjuvant endocrine therapy decision; Breast cancer; Patient education; Patient information needs