Radiation Oncologists’ Views on Adjuvant Radiotherapy for Early-Stage Breast Cancer in the Elderly: Comparisons between Japan and the United States

Abstract

Purpose

To understand perspective on breast cancer using a survey.

Materials & Methods

Questionnaire was distributed to 304 Japanese radiation oncologists (RadOncs) (response rate: 64.1%). Result was compared with a similar US survey.

Results

In a scenario with an 81-year-old patient with comorbidities, while most US RadOncs chose to tell that radiation might not be necessary, 2% of Japanese chose it. In a scenario with a healthy 65-year-old breast cancer patient with lumpectomy, while most US RadOncs chose to discuss omission of radiation, 24.5% of Japanese chose it.

Conclusions

Differences were observed on radiotherapy for older early-stage breast cancer.

Keywords:

• Radiation therapy
• breast cancer
• radiotherapy
• elderly
• international comparison
• survey

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.