Published online Aug 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i24.7043
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
Patients’ knowledge about the characteristics of their own cancer could be an important factor for understanding treatment regimens and adhering to therapies.
To date nothing is known about the awareness among Chinese breast cancer patients on the characteristics of their own tumors.
We aim at determining 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.
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 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.
There were 20.80% to 57.96% of the patients who 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.
Our survey results show that breast cancer patients in China have very poor knowledge about their own cancers.
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.