title: Women's experiences and preferences regarding breast imaging after completing breast cancer treatment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  After treatment for breast cancer, most women receive an annual surveillance mammography to look for subsequent breast cancers. Supplemental breast MRI is sometimes used in addition to mammography despite the lack of clinical evidence for it. Breast imaging after cancer treatment is an emotionally charged experience, an important part of survivorship care, and a topic about which limited patient information exists. We assessed women's experiences and preferences about breast cancer surveillance imaging with the goal of determining where gaps in care and knowledge could be filled.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted six focus groups with a convenience sample of 41 women in California, North Carolina, and New Hampshire (USA). Participants were aged 38-75 years, had experienced stage 0-III breast cancer within the previous 5 years, and had completed initial treatment. We used inductive thematic analysis to identify key themes from verbatim transcripts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women reported various types and frequencies of surveillance imaging and a range of surveillance imaging experiences and preferences. Many women experienced discomfort during breast imaging and anxiety related to the examination, primarily because they feared subsequent cancer detection. Women reported trust in their providers and relied on providers for imaging decision-making. However, women wanted more information about the treatment surveillance transition to improve their care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is significant opportunity in breast cancer survivorship care to improve women's understanding about breast cancer surveillance imaging and to provide enhanced support to them at the time their initial treatment ends and at the time of surveillance imaging examinations.
authors.affiliation: Group Health Research Institute, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brandzel
authors.affiliation: Group Health Research Institute, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Dori E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.affiliation: Group Health Research Institute, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Group Health Research Institute, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bush
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine; Department of Epidemiology; Department of Biostatistics; Department of Veterans Affairs, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Karla
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kerlikowske
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Data Science; Departmen of Epidemiology, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH.
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Onega
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Larissa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nekhlyudov
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: DeMartini
authors.affiliation: Group Health Research Institute, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Karen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Wernli
keywords: breast MRI; breast cancer surveillance; cancer survivorship; mammography; oncology