What drives overtreatment? Surgeon and radiation oncologist views on omission of adjuvant radiotherapy for elderly women with early stage breast cancer.

Authors

null

Dean Alden Shumway

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Dean Alden Shumway , Kent A. Griffith , Michael S. Sabel , Rochelle Jones , Sarah T. Hawley , Jacqueline Sara Jeruss , Reshma Jagsi

Organizations

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Cancer Surveillance and Outcomes Research Team, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI

Research Funding

The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology

Background: Although trials have shown no survival advantage and only a modest improvement in local control from adjuvant radiotherapy after lumpectomy in older women with stage I, ER+ breast cancer, radiotherapy is commonly administered, raising concerns about overtreatment. Therefore, we sought to evaluate physician attitudes, knowledge, communication, and recommendations in this scenario. Methods: We mailed a survey to a national sample of 713 radiation oncologists and 879 surgeons between June to October 2015. Of these, 913 responded (57%). We assessed physicians’ attitudes, knowledge of pertinent risk information, and responses to clinical scenarios. Results: In patients age > = 70 with stage I, ER+ breast cancer treated with lumpectomy and endocrine therapy, omission of radiotherapy was felt to be unreasonable by 40% of surgeons and 20% of radiation oncologists (p < 0.001). Many surgeons (29%) and radiation oncologists (10%) erroneously associated radiotherapy in older women with improvement in survival. Similarly, 32% of surgeons and 19% of radiation oncologists tended to substantially overestimate the risk of locoregional recurrence in older women with omission of RT. In a scenario with an 81-year-old with multiple comorbidities, 31% of surgeons and 35% of radiation oncologists would still recommend radiotherapy. On multivariable analysis, erroneous attribution of a survival benefit to radiotherapy (OR 6.2; 95% CI 3.9-9.8) and overestimation of remaining life expectancy (OR 6.5; CI 4.2-9.9) were strongly associated with the opinion that radiotherapy omission is unreasonable. Conclusions: Many radiation oncologists and surgeons continue to consider omission of radiotherapy as substandard therapy. A sizeable proportion of surgeons overestimate radiotherapy’s benefits and consider omission of radiotherapy to be an unreasonable departure from the standard of care, suggesting that surgeon involvement in decisions about radiotherapy omission may be a key factor in reducing overuse of aggressive care in this setting.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2017 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Breast Cancer—Local/Regional/Adjuvant

Track

Breast Cancer

Sub Track

Local-Regional Therapy

Citation

J Clin Oncol 35, 2017 (suppl; abstr 562)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2017.35.15_suppl.562

Abstract #

562

Poster Bd #

162

Abstract Disclosures

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