A patient’s expectations may influence his or her adherence to medication regimens, quality of life, and reported side effects, according to a study published in the Annals of Oncology.1
Researchers enrolled 111 patients, each of whom had hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, into this 2-year, prospective study. All patients were postoperative; each was to undergo endocrine treatment; 107 were evaluated at 3 months, and 88 were evaluated at 24 months.
Patients with negative expectations before treatment were more likely to report negative side effects and worse quality of life, with a relative risk of negative side effects after 2 years of 1.833. Patients with better expectations were also more likely to adhere to medication regimens at 24 months.
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The authors conclude that patient expectations play a causal role in the development of side effects, quality of life, and medication regimen adherence. Optimization of patient expectations is recommended.
Reference
- Nestoriuc Y, von Blanckenburg P, Schuricht F, et al. Is it best to expect the worst? Influence of patients’ side-effect expectations on endocrine treatment outcome in a 2-year prospective clinical cohort study. Ann Oncol. 2016 Aug 22. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdw266 [Epub ahead of print]