The study, described in an oral presentation December 5 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, is the largest to date that addresses fertility and menopausal concerns among young women with breast cancer.

The results serve as a wakeup call for health care providers, said Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, because "we don't have a great system for educating these women and showing them data even if incomplete about these questions and advising them on what they can consider to attempt to preserve fertility."

According to the result of the Web-based survey, 72 percent of the women said they had discussed fertility issues with their doctor and 17 percent had talked with a fertility specialist. Still, one-quarter of the women felt their unease about fertility was not adequately addressed.

As to whether a woman will retain her fertility, Partridge said the effects of older treatments are fairly well known, but there is less information on newer chemotherapy agents and ways of administering the chemotherapy. When asked to estimate their odds, more than half of women under 30 thought they had a 40 percent or greater chance of becoming infertile, when in fact research have revealed that very few women in this very young age group go through menopause with standard treatment, some studies showing a zero percent incidence in these patients, said Partridge. "Their risk perceptions are likely grossly exaggerated; there is room for education here."

Partridge, of the Breast Oncology Center at Dana-Farber, headed the study; senior author is Eric Winer, MD, the Center's director. The survey's 657 respondents were members of the Young Survival Coalition (YSC) an Internet-based advocacy group for young women with breast cancer. The mean age
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Contact: Janet Haley Dubow
janet_haley@dfci.harvard.edu
617-632-5665
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
5-Dec-2003