Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Cameron Crowell , Carol Digout , Rodrigo L. P. Romao , Annette Flanders , MaryJean Howitt , Craig Erker
Background: Pediatric cancer patients undergoing treatment are often at risk for infertility or subfertility. Healthcare providers do not consistently deliver fertility information prior to therapy. Our objective was to assess if development and implementation of a fertility guideline improves the frequency of pre-treatment fertility discussions with pediatric cancer families. Methods: This retrospective cohort study analyzed all consecutively eligible patients over two time periods. The pre-guideline time period was 18 months prior to implementation and the post-guideline time period was 12 months after implementation. Guideline implementation included an education session with oncology staff. Eligible patients were < 19 years old at cancer diagnosis and received chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. Patients treated with palliative intent were excluded. Pre-guideline rate of pre-treatment fertility discussions was estimated at 40%. An estimated 40 participants in the post-guideline cohort can detect a 30% increase in fertility discussions with β 0.8 and α 0.05. Exploratory analysis assessed factors associated with the frequency of fertility risk discussions. Results: Ninety-five patients were included. Fifty-seven percent were < 10, 26% were 10-15, and 17% were ≥ 16 years old. Pre- and post-guideline cohorts are compared in table. In the pre-guideline cohort, 41% of patients had a discussion about risks of fertility impairment documented, while post-guideline cohort had 49% documented (p = 0.531). Exploratory assessment of combined cohorts found males (OR 0.2.7, 95% CI 0.1.2-6.3-0.87) and patients ≥ 10 years old (OR 5.0, CI 2.1-12.1) were more likely to receive fertility discussions prior to therapy. Radiation and cancer type did not influence whether fertility discussions occurred. Conclusions: Implementation of a fertility guideline did not increase discussions of fertility risk, and less than half of patients had a documented fertility risk discussion. Male patients and age ≥ 10 years old were more likely to have documented discussions about risks to future fertility. Effective strategies are needed to improve the rate of discussions regarding fertility risk to ensure families receive this information prior to therapy.
Pre-Guideline Cohort (n=56) | Post-Guideline Cohort (n=39) | P-value | |
---|---|---|---|
Gender Male Female | 27 (48%) 29 (52%) | 26 (67%) 13 (33%) | 0.094 |
Age (years) < 10 10-15 16 and older | 31 (55%) 14 (25%) 11 (20%) | 23 (59%) 11 (28%) 5 (13%) | 0.71 |
Diagnosis Leukemia/lymphoma CNS Solid Tumour | 31 (55%) 7 (13%) 18 (32%) | 25 (64%) 2 (5%) 12 (31%) | 0.50 |
Chemotherapy Yes No | 54 (96%) 2 (4%) | 39 (100%) 0 | 0.51 |
Receipt of alkylator chemotherapy Yes No | 44 12 | 26 13 | 0.24 |
Radiation Yes No | 18 (32%) 38 (68%) | 8 (21%) 31 (79%) | 0.25 |
Discussion of fertility risk Yes No | 23 (41%) 33 (59%) | 20 (51%) 19 (49%) | 0.53 |
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