Doctors Say: Sharing News Breast Cancer Has Come Back Is Worse Than Giving Initial Diagnosis
“Hearing the sad news that bosom cancer has returned can be a devastating experience payment patients,
especially as this means that the disease is no longer curable. Doctors also distinguish imparting this information to
women with whom they have developed a confiding relationship over the years to the nth degree distressing.
But, optimal despise of available treatments choice commission more women to stay cancer-free and Medicine set the
numeral of these sad, upset and difficult conversations. Doctors interval need keep from learning how to
communicate distressing report in honest, clear and supporting ways.”
Professor Lesley Fallowfield, Professor of Psychosocial Oncology, UK
New research, published in Current Medical Digging and Estimate, reveals finished three-quarters
of doctors (78%) find telling women their titty cancer has come back so difficult that they consider
it staid worse than breaking the caustic good copy of the original diagnosis.1 When tit cancer comes bet on a support,
it results in a significant emotional and doc millstone on patients and their doctors. As a service to most women,
recurrence means their cancer is ultimately no longer curable. Sharing such painful news with a patient and
her type is only difficult for doctors, with almost half (44%) saying they find discussing recurrence the
most stressful part of their assign.1
Protecting women from recurrence is the number one priority pro doctors treating hormone receptor-positive
at the crack breast cancer. As titty cancer is most likely to come second in the first 18 months following diagnosis,
prescribing the most effective treatment as early as viable, to minimise the risk of recurrence, is key to
hoard lives. The majority of women who took business in the experimentation (83%) classify their trust in their doctor and
are convinced they commitment be dedicated the best treatment present to keep them disease-free.1 However, if their
cancer comes back, 41% of patients tolerate their trust in their doctor would decrease.1
For doctors to be ineluctable they are making the master treatment choice for patients, the check in shows almost
all (91%) rely on comprehensive clinical information.1 In addendum to a strong evidence corrupt, doctors say their
experience with a single treatment is a crucial particular in selecting the most appropriate treatment. Dr Mark
Lansdown, a consulting surgeon based in the UK, comments: “Doctors treating breast cancer possess a very
trustful relationship with their patients. To protect that trust, doctors need to have confidence in their
treatment decisions, which straight away impact on patients’ lives.”
Dr Lansdown continues: “It is important that we theme our treatment strategy on hardy and fully grown clinical
evidence to procreate a sense of confidence for prescribing oncologists. A good admonition of this is the change in
treatment strategies we have seen in rejoinder to the wealth of clinical data on aromatase inhibitors. In postmenopausal
women these are now replacing tamoxifen as the gold-standard treatment choice by reason of preventing
recurrence of breast cancer.”
The most season clinical data set on aromatase inhibitors (AIs) is seen with the ARIMIDEX, Tamoxifen,
Only or in Bloc go (ATAC). ATAC was the first reported trial to bear tamoxifen with an
aromatase inhibitor as upfront adjuvant hormonal therapy, showing superior efficacy at preventing
recurrence even four years after treatment ends (24% reduced risk of recurrence with the AI anastrozole
compared with tamoxifen). 2 The enquiry, also presented at the recent 6th European Bust Cancer
Conference, reveals 78% of physicians would propound anastrozole for their ancestry or themselves,
highlighting the concern of trace and physical familiarity which convince to confidence and consign in
treatment choice.1
As the primary source of information for 87% of tit cancer patients, it is crucial doctors feel supported,
of a mind and equipped to talk with their patients forth the risks of recurrence and the most effective means
of preventing it.1 Notwithstanding, evidence suggests patients can point to it sedulous to absorb this information3 and it has
been proposed that interventions to support doctors to improve their communications skills and stressmanagement
techniques, would improve consultations and head up to less ill quality safe keeping.4,5,6
As part of their commitment to support healthcare professionals managing core cancer, AstraZeneca is
working with doctors and communication experts to develop training materials, to help doctors and women
with breast cancer communicate more effectively around recurrence. These training materials can be
accessed on the Knocker Cancer Source website at http://www.breastcancersource.com.
‘More Positive Conversations’ universal evaluate
The ‘More Positive Conversations’ survey was deigned to investigate the impact of categorical and negative interactions on the
relationship between doctors and their patients. It was conducted online and via give someone a ring interviews by Harris Interactive on
behalf of AstraZeneca. The survey involved 462 breast cancer physicians and 600 patients* from France, Germany, Italy, the
United Territory and the United States. The results have been published online in Current Medical Research and Opinion with the full paper scheduled for print publication in the July pour of the catalogue.
* Postmenopausal women diagnosed with early breast cancer in the past 5 years, who had undergone surgery.
Matter-of-fact Conversations Oncologist Toolkit
The Positive Conversations training materials are designed for healthcare professionals and can be downloaded
here
ATAC Trial
The ARIMIDEX, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination (ATAC) trial is one of the world’s largest and longest-running clinical
studies in postmenopausal women with initially breast cancer. ATAC is designed to investigate the comparative efficacy and
tolerability of two adjuvant therapies: ARIMIDEX (anastrozole) and tamoxifen.
The 100-month analysis of ATAC, presented for the initially time in Europe at the 6th European Boob Cancer Conference (EBCC) mould month, reinforces the informative superiority of ARIMIDEX over tamoxifen at reducing the risk of breast cancer returning (also known as ‘recurrence’) and at increasing disorder-free survival (DFS) in postmenopausal women with hormone receptorpositive early disease.2 These new data also show that, monotonous close to four years after treatment close, the unmitigated reduction in the risk of condition recurrence continues to extend with ARIMIDEX compared with tamoxifen.2
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the check out, progress, manufacture and marketing of medicine pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of $26.47 billion and leading positions in sales of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology and infection products. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Token (Global) as leak as the FTSE4 Good Hint. ARIMIDEX (anastrozole) is a trademark, the property of the AstraZeneca group of companies. http://www.astrazeneca.com
References
1 Lansdown M, Martin L and Fallowfield L. Patient-physician interactions during early breast-cancer treatment: results from an international online survey. In circulation Medical Research and Opinion 2008; 24 (7).
2 The ATAC Trialists’ Group. Effect of anastrozole and tamoxifen as adjuvant treatment for primordial-organize tit cancer: 100 month analysis of the ATAC trial. The Lancet Oncology 2008; 9(1):45-53.
3 Wedgström Y, et al. Patients’ knowledge and encounter of adjuvant endocrine cure for early breast cancer: A European study. The Titty 2007.
4 Fallowfield L, Jenkins V, Farewell V, Saul J, Duffy A, Eves R. Efficacy of a Cancer Research UK communication skills training model for oncologists: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2002; 359: 650-656.
5 Jenkins V, Fallowfield L. Can communication skills training alter physicians’ beliefs and behaviour in clinics? J Clin Oncol2002; 20: 765-769.
6 Fallowfield L, Jenkins V, Farewell V, Solis-Trapala I. Enduring impact of communication skills training: results of a 12 month ape-up. Br J Cancer 2003; 89: 1445-1449.
http://www.astrazeneca.com
Assess upper intelligence on Arimidex.