Ovarian cancer patients’ knowledge of advanced ovarian cancer and maintenance therapy: Differences across disease and maintenance therapy status (472)

Abstract

<b>Objectives:</b> Given the recent expansion of indications for maintenance therapy (MT), patients must understand the potential risks and benefits of MT to make an informed decision. We evaluated differences in patients' knowledge of OC and MT across disease status and prior receipt of maintenance using the ovarian cancer knowledge measure, Knowledge Measure for Ovarian Cancer Research (KnoMOR). <b>Methods:</b> The KnoMOR knowledge measure consists of a 12-ques- tion OC scale and a 17-question MT scale. The scales have excellent internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity. Patients with > 3 cycles of chemotherapy and cytoreductive surgery were invited to participate and answered the survey by email or phone. No prior background content was provided to patients. OC scale and MT scale scores were calculated as a percentage of correct responses. <b>Results:</b> Total 146 patients completed the knowledge measure. The median age was 63.1 years (range: 33.3-90.3). The majority had stage III/lV high-grade serous OC (83%), 55.5% had recurrent disease and 61.6% had received prior MT in either the upfront or recurrent setting. Most patients were White (85%), 71% were married, and 60% had completed at least four years of college. Most patients showed a poor understanding of the likelihood of recurrence after primary treatment. The majority (73%) of patients incorrectly answered "true" or "I don't know" to the true/false question. About 25% of patients with advanced OC had their cancer come back after treatment. Less than half (48.6%) of the patients understood the meaning of progressionfree survival; however, the vast majority (92.3%) of patients correctly answered a question about common treatment-related side effects. Overall, mean OC scores were higher than MT scores (58.7 vs 43.9, respectively, p<.001). Regardless of whether patients had ever received MT, they did not appear to understand the main goal of MT, and had a poor understanding of dosage, when to start or stop MT, and MT-related side effects. Compared to patients who had never been diagnosed with a recurrence, patients with recurrent disease had higher OC knowledge scores (median: 54.2 vs 66.7, p=.027) but no significant difference was noted for MT knowledge scores (35.3 vs 47.1, p=.32). In contrast, knowledge scores were higher on the MT scale among patients who had received prior MT compared to those who had no prior MT (47.1 vs 35.3, p=.002). OC scale scores were not different between patients who had received prior MT (66.7 vs 58.3, p=.18). Table 1 shows differences in the percentage of correct responses to specific questions between groups. <b>Conclusions:</b> Our data reveal deficits in knowledge regarding OC and MT regardless of experience with disease recurrence or MT. As MT becomes more widely available, shared decision tools can address patients' poor understanding of OC and MT and ultimately empower patients to make informed decisions.