A difficult balancing act : Informing breast cancer patients about adjuvant systemic therapy

Engelhardt, E.M.G. (2017)

Doctoral Thesis

The objective of the work presented in this thesis is to assess information provision about adjuvant systemic therapy during consultations between early-stage breast cancer patients and medical oncologists in general. In this era of personalized medicine, prediction tools (e.g., Adjuvant!) are becoming an integral part of information provision during patient consultations. However, evidence is lacking about a) how prevalent the use of such tools is during patient consultations, and b) whether and how the use of such tools influences information provision. Therefore, this thesis in addition to assessing the availability and the quality of prediction tools for the early-stage breast cancer setting, also zooms in on the use of such tools during patient consultations and their impact on the content of consultations.

• Breast cancer
• Adjuvant systemic therapy
• Prediction models
• Risk communication
• Decision-making

• All authors: Engelhardt, E.M.G.
• Supervisor: Stiggelbout, A.M.; Smets, E.M.A.
• Co-supervisor: Pieterse, A.H.
• Committee: Steyerberg, E.W.; Dulmen, A.M. van; Gelderblom, A.J.; Liefers, G.J.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Medische Besliskunde, Medicine / Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden University
• Date: 2017-09-19