Compliance to a Hormone Therapy Regimen in Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

- To examine the relationship between adherence to endocrine therapy and variables from
the Health Belief Model (i.e., perceived risk, barriers to and benefits of adherence,
and cues to action such as physician recommendation) as well as measures of patient's
perceptions of patient- and family-centered care in women with estrogen
receptor-positive stage I-IIIA breast cancer.

OUTLINE: Patients complete a 15 minute questionnaire on-line or by mail comprising questions
of demographic and medical variables (i.e., age, race/ethnicity, marital and educational
status, and medication side effects) as well as health beliefs and selected aspects of
patient- and family-centered care. Data collected from the questionnaire will be stored in
an Excel database.

Patient's medical records are reviewed for information about the time since diagnosis, tumor
characteristics, treatment, and comorbidity.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Women diagnosed with breast cancer

- Stage I-IIIA disease

- Estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease

- Must have begun prescribed hormonal therapy between December 2000 and December 2002

- No prior history of breast cancer

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- Female

- Menopausal status not specified

- Able to read and understand English

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- See Disease Characteristics

- Prior breast surgery, axillary surgery, and radiotherapy to the breast or chest wall
allowed