Patients' understanding of their own disease and survival potential in patients with metastatic breast cancer

Okamura, H Yamamoto, N Watanabe, T Katsumata, N Takashima, S Adachi, I Kugaya, A Akechi, T Uchitomi, Y

H. Okamura et al., Patients' understanding of their own disease and survival potential in patients with metastatic breast cancer, BREAST CANC, 61(2), 2000, pp. 145-150

24

INGLESE

Article

Oncology,"Onconogenesis & Cancer Research

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH AND TREATMENT

0167-6806 → ACNP

61

2

2000

145 - 150

ISI

0167-6806(200005)61:2<145:PUOTOD>2.0.ZU;2-S

Purpose: To investigate the effect of understanding their own disease by pa tients with metastatic breast cancer on their survival potential after bein g informed by their physician. Patients and methods: Two hundred and fourteen women with metastatic breast cancer who participated in a multi-institutional, randomized phase III tri al (Japan Clinical Oncology Group (JCOG) Study 8808) were asked whether the y understood their own disease after being given information about the clin ical trial. They were classified into two groups on the basis of whether th ey understood or not. We estimated their survival after the time of registr ation and derived relative hazard ratios from Cox's proportional hazards mo del. Results: There were 190 patients in the 'better understanding' group and 24 in the 'poor understanding' group. Median survival times after registratio n were 28.3 and 16.1 months, respectively. The 'better understanding' group showed a significant difference from the 'poor understanding' group (p = 0 .016). In multivariate regression analysis, patients who did not understand still showed poorer survival than those who understood (hazard ratio = 2.0 9; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.16-3.78; p = 0.014). Conclusion: These results support the supposition that patients' understand ing of information about their disease may influence their survival. Thus, it is important to evaluate patients' recognition about information even af ter obtaining their consent. However, further investigation is needed to cl arify the exact nature of this relationship.