Do community-based patient assistance programs affect the treatment and well-being of patients with breast cancer?

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Patients with breast cancer who need adjuvant treatments often fail to receive them. High-quality, community-based patient-assistance programs are an underused, inexpensive resource to help patients with cancer obtain needed therapy. We sought to determine whether connecting women to patient-assistance programs would reduce underuse of adjuvant therapies.

Methods

We conducted a randomized trial of 374 women (190 assigned intervention [INT], 184 to usual care [UC]) with early-stage breast cancer who underwent surgery between October 2006 and August 2009. After initial needs assessment, individualized action plans were created to connect INT patients with targeted patient-assistance programs; UC patients received an informational pamphlet. Main outcome measures were re

SUBMITTER: Bickell NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5706137 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature