Awareness and Candidacy for Endocrine Prevention and Risk Reducing Mastectomy in Unaffected High-Risk Women Referred...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Preventive Medicine
• Genetics

Background:

• Primary prevention of breast cancer involves strategies like endocrine prevention and risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM).
• Evaluating awareness of these strategies among different high-risk subgroups is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess awareness and consideration of various breast cancer preventive strategies.
• To compare awareness across distinct high-risk subgroups: germline pathogenic variant carriers (GPV), high-risk lesions (HRL), and strong family history (FH).

Main Methods:

• A questionnaire assessed perceived risk and consideration of preventive strategies in 482 high-risk women.
• Statistical analyses, including ANOVA and chi-squared tests, compared differences between subgroups.

Main Results:

• While screening and lifestyle strategies were widely considered, RRM (39.8%) and endocrine prevention (27.0%) were less considered.
• GPV carriers were more likely to consider RRM (59.4%) than HRL (33.3%) or FH (26.3%) subgroups.
• Endocrine prevention was considered by 47.2% of HRL, 31.1% of GPV, and 18.7% of FH subgroups, despite significant eligibility.

Conclusions:

• Endocrine prevention is the least considered preventive option among high-risk women.
• A significant proportion of women with HRL or strong FH are eligible for endocrine prevention but have lower consideration rates.
• Targeted educational interventions may be needed to improve awareness and uptake of endocrine prevention.