Abstract
Background
Postoperative endocrine therapy is known to reduce recurrence and mortality in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)- or progestogen receptor (PR)-positive breast cancer. Correlates and determinants of compliance with endocrine therapy among Chinese patients with breast cancer are not known. The aim of this study was to elucidate the efficacy and adherence of endocrine therapy in China and suggest effective improvements on the adherence.
Patients and methods
We analyzed the survival of 1,110 patients eligible for endocrine therapy and adherence of 699 patients to endocrine therapy. Kaplan–Meier curves, log-rank tests and Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate survival, and logistic regression models were used to assess variables associated with treatment adherence.
Results
Long-term endocrine therapy was associated with lower recurrence rate (HR 0.72; 95% CI 0.56–0.93; p=0.013). Adherence to endocrine therapy was only 63.1%. Sociodemographic characteristics of patients, clinical- and medication-related characteristics and patients’ attitudes were associated with adherence to endocrine therapy.
Conclusion
Adherence to endocrine therapy in Chinese patients with ER+/PR+ breast cancer was <65%. Both patients and physicians should take progressive steps to improve the rate of adherence.
Keywords:
Supplementary materials
Table S1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study population
Table S2 Survival analysis of ET and related factors
Acknowledgments
We thank all the staff members in the Department of Breast Surgery at the First Hospital of Jilin University who helped collect patients’ information in the past 10 years. This work was supported by a grant from Canada International Development Agency (PSCLU010-282/19156) and another grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No 30872194).
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.