Identifying common concerns and predicting vulnerable populations among breast cancer survivors.

Abstract

e24064 Background: Long-term survival is common after breast cancer treatment with 5-year survival reaching almost 90%. Breast cancer survivors (BCS) face varying degrees of quality of life (QOL) issues depending on their age of diagnosis, disease severity, and treatment. We present a retrospective analysis aimed to describe demographics of BCS, recognize common concerns and identify the vulnerable patients. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of BCS seen at our Breast Cancer Survivorship Program from October 2016 to May 2021. Patients were given a survey to assess self-reported symptoms following treatment. The descriptive analysis of patient characteristics included age, cancer stage, and treatment type. The bivariate analysis included the relationship between the patient characteristics and their outcomes. Chi-square test was used to analyze group differences. Fisher exact test was employed when any of the expected frequencies was five or less. Logistic regression models were developed to identify significant predictors for outcomes. Results: 902 patients (age 26-94; median 64) were seen. Patient's characteristics studied included cancer stage, age group, and treatment modality. Most common self-reported concerns affecting BCS were fatigue (34%), insomnia (33%), hot flashes (26%), night sweats (23%), pain (22%), trouble concentrating (19%) and neuropathy (21%). Majority of patients (91%) reported having a happy outlook and felt a sense of purpose (89%), but 13% of BCS felt isolated at least 50% of the time. Young survivors (age ≤45) (p = 0.028), higher stage BCS (Stage 2-3) (p = 0.0061) and those who had chemotherapy either alone or as part of their multi-modality treatment (p < 0.0001) were significantly less likely to return back to at least 50% of their pre-treatment baseline (Table). Conclusions: Our study showed that younger BCS, patients with higher cancer stage, and those who underwent chemotherapy are the most vulnerable groups in terms of severity of QOL issues. Identifying vulnerable populations and evaluating common concerns after treatments are important in delivering quality care. Optimizing interventions under standardized approach would help to increase QOL in BCS.[Table: see text]