Abstract
IntroductionWe compared behavioral risk factors and preventive measures among female breast cancer survivors, female survivors of other types of cancers, and women without a history of cancer. Survivorship health care indicators for the 2 groups of cancer survivors were compared.MethodsUsing data from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we calculated the proportion of women with risk factors and their engagement in preventive practices, stratified by cancer status (cancer survivors or women with no history of cancer), and compared the proportions after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsA significantly higher proportion of breast cancer survivors had mammography in the previous year (79.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 76.0%–83.0%) than did other cancer survivors (68.1%; 95% CI, 65.6%–70.7%) or women with no history of cancer (66.4%; 95% CI, 65.5%–67.3%). Breast cancer survivors were also more likely to have had a Papanicolaou (Pap) test within the previous 3 years than women with no history of cancer (89.4%; 95% CI, 85.9%–93.0 vs 85.1%; 95% CI, 84.4%–85.8%) and a colonoscopy within the previous 10 years (75.4%; 95% CI, 71.7%–79.0%) than women with no history of cancer (60.0%; 95% CI, 59.0%–61.0%). Current smoking was significantly lower among survivors of breast cancer (10.3%; 95% CI, 7.4%–13.2%) than other cancer survivors (20.8%; 95% CI, 18.4%–23.3%) and women with no history of cancer (18.3%; 95% CI, 17.5%–19.1%). After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, we found that breast cancer survivors were significantly more likely to have had mammography, a Pap test, and colonoscopy, and less likely to be current smokers.ConclusionBreast cancer survivors are more likely to engage in cancer screening and less likely to be current smokers than female survivors of other types of cancer or women with no history of cancer.
Highlights
We compared behavioral risk factors and preventive measures among female breast cancer survivors, female survivors of other types of cancers, and women without a history of cancer
The study population consisted of 39,235 women aged 18 years or older who participated in the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 1 of the 9 states and 1 territory that implemented the cancer survivorship optional module
The most frequently reported age at diagnosis was between age 50 and 79 (59.2% breast; 40.6% other cancer survivors); the female survivors of other types of cancer tended to be younger when the cancer was diagnosed; 40.2% were given a diagnosis before age 40
Summary
We compared behavioral risk factors and preventive measures among female breast cancer survivors, female survivors of other types of cancers, and women without a history of cancer. Increased rates of breast cancer survivorship bring with them potential health challenges [2], including recurrence, related to a previous breast cancer [3,4,5] and development of a second primary cancer, a new cancer with a different histology than a previous tumor [6,7,8]. In a large surveillance study, researchers found that, on average, 12.3% of breast cancer survivors had a second primary cancer, and this risk varied by age and cancer type with a mean time until the second cancer of 6.2 years (8 years for patients with breast cancer diagnosed prior to age 50 and 5.7 years for patients with breast cancer diagnosed at or older than age 50) [6].
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