Geng C, Lu GJ, Zhu J, Li YY. Patients’ awareness about their own breast cancer characteristics. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(24): 7043-7052 [PMID: 34540959 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i24.7043]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Yu-Yang Li, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, No. 324 Jingwu Road, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China. yuyangli2021@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Aug 26, 2021; 9(24): 7043-7052 Published online Aug 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i24.7043
Patients’ awareness about their own breast cancer characteristics
Chong Geng, Guo-Jun Lu, Jing Zhu, Yu-Yang Li
Chong Geng, Yu-Yang Li, Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Guo-Jun Lu, Department of General Surgery, Third Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250031, Shandong Province, China
Jing Zhu, Department of Breast Surgery, Foshan Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Foshan 528000, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Li YY designed and developed the whole project and organized collaborators to finish this survey, modified the original article, completed the statistical work, and was charge of manuscript submission; Geng C contributed to the preparation, creation, and presentation of the work of the original research group, helped the corresponding author do the project administration, and was charge of communication of all hospitals; Lu GJ took the survey and collected the data of patients from Weifang city when he worked in Shandong An Qiu People’s Hospital then; Zhu J took the survey and collected the data of patients from Foshan city.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery Institutional Review Board (No. SWYX2021-090).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yu-Yang Li, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, No. 324 Jingwu Road, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China. yuyangli2021@163.com
Received: April 22, 2021 Peer-review started: April 22, 2021 First decision: May 24, 2021 Revised: May 25, 2021 Accepted: July 5, 2021 Article in press: July 5, 2021 Published online: August 26, 2021 Processing time: 123 Days and 17.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Patients’ knowledge about the characteristics of their own cancer could be an important factor for understanding treatment regimens and adhering to therapies. However, to date nothing is known about the awareness among Chinese breast cancer patients about the characteristics of their own tumors.
AIM
To investigate how much knowledge that Chinese breast cancer patients have about their tumor characteristics and the impact of health and education literacy on the acquisition of such information.
METHODS
The survey was administered to patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer from 2017 to 2019 in three hospitals in China, and who came in for regular follow-up on an outpatient basis. We collected responses from 226 respondents who were asked about their cancer characteristics (stage, grade, and estrogen receptor status and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status of the cancer), and evaluated the correctness by comparing with their medical records. Logistic regression was used to assess the probability of knowing and of correctly answering questions. We also analyzed the association between our findings and the level of the patient’s education and their health literacy.
RESULTS
Overall, 20.80% to 57.96% of the patients reported knowing about the characteristics of breast cancer; of these, 10.18% to 46.46% reported these characteristics correctly. Education, age, and health literacy were all significantly associated with awareness rate, and with the level to which this information was accurate.
CONCLUSION
Breast cancer patients in China know little about their disease, and better education aimed at improving their knowledge about cancer characteristics is urgently needed. The low level of awareness could represent a deficiency of communication between surgeons and patients, which may be one of the reasons why medical disputes occur in China.
Core Tip: Breast cancer patients in China have very poor knowledge about their own disease. Better education of individuals with breast cancer in China is critically needed. We highly recommend that Chinese physicians provide additional information about the disease to patients, which might promote better treatment adherence and lead to improved doctor-patient relationships.
