Health & Medicine
Some Breast Cancer Patients Lack Knowledge About The Health Issue
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Jan 26, 2015 01:28 AM EST
A new analysis shows that many women with breast cancer may lack knowledge regarding their illness. In fact, the findings show how minority patients may be less likely than others to know and report accurate information about their tumors' characteristics.
New information published in CANCER highlight the need to more properly educate patients about their health conditions, which could lead to more informed treatment decisions.
Although previous studies have examined general cancer knowledge, no prior study has examined whether women actually know and understand the details about their own cancers.
Lead study author Rachel Freedman, MD, MPH, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and colleagues, surveyed 500 women with breast cancer to see how knowledgeable participants were about their own cancers, including the stage of the tumor, grade and receptor status.
Findings showed that about 32 percent to 82 percent reported that they knew each of the tumor characteristics, while only 20 percent to 58 percent actually reported the characteristics correctly.
Black and Hispanic women were less likely than white women to know about cancer characteristics. However, after accounting for health literacy and educational attainment in particular, some of the knowledge deficits went away for Hispanic women but health literacy had little impact on the findings for black women.
"Our results illustrate the lack of understanding many patients have about their cancers and have identified a critical need for improved patient education and provider awareness of this issue," concluded Dr. Freedman, in a news release. "Improving patients' understanding about why a particular treatment is important for her individual situation may lead to more informed decisions and better adherence to treatment."
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First Posted: Jan 26, 2015 01:28 AM EST
A new analysis shows that many women with breast cancer may lack knowledge regarding their illness. In fact, the findings show how minority patients may be less likely than others to know and report accurate information about their tumors' characteristics.
New information published in CANCER highlight the need to more properly educate patients about their health conditions, which could lead to more informed treatment decisions.
Although previous studies have examined general cancer knowledge, no prior study has examined whether women actually know and understand the details about their own cancers.
Lead study author Rachel Freedman, MD, MPH, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and colleagues, surveyed 500 women with breast cancer to see how knowledgeable participants were about their own cancers, including the stage of the tumor, grade and receptor status.
Findings showed that about 32 percent to 82 percent reported that they knew each of the tumor characteristics, while only 20 percent to 58 percent actually reported the characteristics correctly.
Black and Hispanic women were less likely than white women to know about cancer characteristics. However, after accounting for health literacy and educational attainment in particular, some of the knowledge deficits went away for Hispanic women but health literacy had little impact on the findings for black women.
"Our results illustrate the lack of understanding many patients have about their cancers and have identified a critical need for improved patient education and provider awareness of this issue," concluded Dr. Freedman, in a news release. "Improving patients' understanding about why a particular treatment is important for her individual situation may lead to more informed decisions and better adherence to treatment."
For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone