The number of early stage breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy declined by more than 10 percent from 2013 to 2015, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
For the study, researchers surveyed more than 5,000 early stage breast cancer patients treated sometime between 2013 and 2015 in Georgia and Los Angeles. The team also surveyed the 504 oncologists who treated the patients. While 34.5 percent of respondents reported chemotherapy use in 2013, just 21.3 percent reported use of the treatment in 2015. Additionally, the number of oncologists that recommended chemotherapy dropped from 44.9 percent to 31.6 percent over the same time period.
"We believe this study indicates that physicians are attempting to be more selective in their recommendations and to spare patients toxicity when possible," said Allison Kurian, MD, associate professor of medicine and of health research and policy at Stanford (Calif.) University. "As personalized medicine becomes more widely available, doctors are using test results as part of their dialogue with patients about their preferences and overall treatment goals. But the long-term outcomes of these recent changes in chemotherapy use are uncertain."
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