RATIONALE: Adjuvant therapy given after surgery for early breast cancer may cause infertility. Assessing young women's attitudes and feelings about the risk of infertility may help improve the ability to plan effective treatment.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying young women's attitudes and feelings about the risk of infertility related to adjuvant therapy for stage I or stage II breast cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the attitude toward the risk of infertility related to adjuvant therapy in women with early breast cancer.
• Correlate, if possible, the patient's attitude with the fact that the patient already has children or the time interval between the date of breast cancer diagnosis and the date of study participation.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients complete a questionnaire administered by a nontreating physician.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 385 patients will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically or cytologically confirmed prior or current diagnosis of breast cancer

  • Stage I or II
  • No relapsed disease

• No evidence of infertility

  • Regular menses or regular hormonal contraception use for the past 3 months

• Hormonal status:

  • Not specified

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 35 and under at diagnosis

Sex

• Female

Menopausal status

• Premenopausal

Performance status

• Not specified

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• Not specified

Hepatic

• Not specified

Renal

• Not specified

Other

• No psychological, familial, sociological, or geographical condition that would preclude study compliance

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Not specified

Chemotherapy

• Not specified

Endocrine therapy

• See Disease Characteristics

Radiotherapy

• Not specified

Surgery

• Not specified