gms | German Medical Science

27th German Cancer Congress Berlin 2006

German Cancer Society (Frankfurt/M.)

22. - 26.03.2006, Berlin

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What do breast cancer patients (BC) expect from their physicians and from treatment? Results of a german survey in 617 patients.

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Gülten Oskay-Özcelik - Charité, Berlin, Deutschland
  • Walter Lehmacher - Universitätsklinikum, Köln
  • Robert Mirz - Charité, Berlin
  • Hildegard Christ - Universitätsklinikum, Köln
  • Manfred Kaufmann - Universitätsklinikum, Frankfurt
  • Michael Bamberg - Universitätsklinikum, Tübingen
  • Werner Lichtenegger - Charité, Berlin
  • Diethelm Wallwiener - Universitätsklinikum, Tübingen
  • Friedrich Overkamp - Klinik, Recklinghausen
  • Hans-Joachim Hindenburg - Charité, Berlin
  • Jalid Sehouli - Charité, Berlin

27. Deutscher Krebskongress. Berlin, 22.-26.03.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocOP061

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dkk2006/06dkk171.shtml

Published: March 20, 2006

© 2006 Oskay-Özcelik et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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An increasing number of breast cancer patients (pts) in western countries are accessing the Internet for medical information. The following study was condcuted to explore the information needs and preferences of patients with special focus on doctor-patient communication on Germany. During an eight months period of time, a questionnaire consisting of 62 questions was developed and validated in a phase-I study and was addressed both via internet (homepage) and via a print-version to breast cancer patients.

A total of 617 pts, 552 online version and 65 by print version, were eligible. 65% of the patients didn’t have distant metastases. There were no significant differences in the answers between pts with adjuvant and metastatic BC. Looking for alternative therapies beside the regular treatment was the most frequent reason for using the internet. Asking the pts what information refering their disease and therapy are of major importance to them the responses were: do I receive the right therapy? (89%); Can I participate in a trial? (46%). The most frequently mentioned recommendations to optimize the management were: more alternative therapies should be offered (54%); physicians should invest more time for explanations (51%); communication between all involved physicians should be improved (39%). 97% of all pts require more information of the impact of treatment on the everyday life. This study confirms an unspoilt trust of patients in their doctors and underlines the need to give patients with breast cancer all details on treatment options.

(Supported by ESSEX Pharma Germany)