Pilot Study of a Follow-up Intervention to Improve the Quality of Care for Low-Risk Breast Cancer Survivors
Pilot Study of a Follow-up Intervention to Improve the Quality of Care for Low-Risk Breast Cancer Survivors
This study tests a novel, risk-stratified approach for low risk breast cancer survivor follow-up care that reduces burden for survivors and their oncologists while simultaneously delivering more comprehensive care. The intervention is called Remote Electronic Assessment of Survivors with Feedback Communication and Directed Referrals (REASSURE). 50 participants will be enrolled into 2 cohorts, 25 into cohort 1 who will experience the REASSURE intervention 6 months from enrollment and 25 into cohort 2 who will experience components of the REASSURE intervention at their next follow-up visit. Participants can expect to be on study for up to 9 months.
Current follow-up care for 3 million+ breast cancer survivors is both burdensome and fails to comprehensively address survivors' needs. Survivors and oncologists value these visits because visits reassure survivors about recurrence, and support oncologists' views about their responsibilities for managing ongoing therapy. However, early-stage survivors derive less benefit from follow-up, while incurring substantial financial burdens. Further, follow-up visit time restraints prevent addressing all topics prioritized by survivors or recommended as comprehensive survivorship care. Because most low-risk breast cancer survivors will never experience a recurrence, there is a critical need to develop a novel, risk-stratified approach to follow-up that reduces burden for survivors and their oncologists while simultaneously delivering more comprehensive care.
To address this gap, the team engaged stakeholders to develop an intervention for low-risk breast cancer survivors, called Remote Electronic Assessment of Survivors with Feedback Communication and Directed Referrals (REASSURE). REASSURE maintains one annual in-person oncology visit, consistent with stakeholder preferences for oncology-based follow-up. REASSURE utilizes remote patient-reported outcomes assessments to comprehensively assess symptoms, promotes practice change by providing feedback reports to oncologists and engaging primary care providers (PCPs) in survivorship care, and reduces the burden of follow-up by substituting an oncology visit for thriving survivors with reassurance messaging and encouragement to pursue preventive care. The investigators have successfully pilot tested the PRO assessment and estimate that 25% of low-risk breast cancer survivors will have symptoms requiring a follow-up visit with medical oncology.
In this pilot feasibility study, the REASSURE intervention will be implemented into clinical care for the first time. Eligible survivors will be recruited and use mixed methods to accomplish four study objectives:
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria: