Recognizing Disparities in Breast Cancer Patient-Reported Outcome Measures

Excerpt

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) have become increasingly important as cancer care shifts toward a value-based care system.¹ PROMs are regularly being incorporated and reported in clinical trials, although they have not yet been broadly utilized in routine clinical care. In breast cancer, there is interest in using PROMs to improve the quality of clinical care and inform surgical decision-making. For example, although many young women with breast cancer choose bilateral mastectomy, BREAST-Q (a validated breast-specific PROM) scores show highest satisfaction with breasts and psychosocial and sexual well-being in young patients who underwent breast-conserving therapy.² Incorporating these data into decision-making conversations may help to decrease rates of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy in unilateral breast cancer. …