title: Survey on Chinese breast cancer patients' husbands toward breast conserving surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Husband, as an important member of the family, greatly impacts the treatment decision. In this study, we sought to evaluate the attitudes toward breast conserving surgery (BCS) in Chinese breast cancer patients' husbands and explore the influencing factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A self-structured questionnaire was distributed to the husbands of 1600 wives with breast cancer, eliciting information on their general information, the level of understanding of BCS, attitudes toward BCS and affecting reasons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all, 1468 (91.8%) husbands completed the questionnaire. Collation of the responses showed that only 3.0% had a good understanding of BCS and 81.5% did not favor BCS. Patients' husbands perception were associated with their age, religion, occupation, educational background, method of payment of medical expenses, understanding the disease condition and doctor's recommendations (p<0.05). The top reason was "fear of incomplete resection, which could easily lead to recurrence and metastasis".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study indicates that Chinese husbands have skepticism and lack comprehensive and correct understanding for BCS. Meanwhile, their desire of obtaining knowledge was not strong. The results suggest a need for fundamental changes in husbands' education to ensure that they are able to obtain enough information so that they can help their wives make educated decisions.
authors.affiliation: West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, P.R.China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Xiao-Bo
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Wen-Xiu
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Li-Qun
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Zou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D018454:Spouses; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires