Sustainable return to work among breast cancer survivors

Abstract Purpose This study assessed sustainable return to work (SRTW) of breast cancer survivors (BCS). Methods We used data from the prospective French cohort, CANTO. We included 1811 stage I–III BCS who were  50 (OR = 0.59; 95%CI = 0.43–0.82), stage III (2.56; 1.70–3.85), tumour subtype HR+/HER2+ (0.61; 0.39–0.95), severe fatigue (1.45; 1.06–1.98), workplace accommodations (1.63; 1.14–2.33) and life priorities (0.71; 0.53–0.95). Unemployment was associated with age > 50 (0.45; 0.29–0.72), working in the public sector (0.31; 0.19–0.51), for a small company (3.00; 1.74–5.20) and having a fixed‐term contract (7.50; 4.74–11.86). Conclusions A high number of BCS have periods of sick leave or unemployment after RTW. The determinants differ between sick leave and unemployment. Implications for cancer survivors BCS need to be supported even after RTW, which should be regarded as a process

Adjuvant endocrine therapy uptake, toxicity, quality of life, and prediction of early discontinuation

Abstract Background Many patients receiving adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET) for breast cancer experience side effects and reduced quality of life (QoL) and discontinue ET. We sought to describe these issues and develop a prediction model of early discontinuation of ET. Methods Among patients with hormone receptor–positive and HER2-negative stage I-III breast cancer of the Cancer Toxicities cohort (NCT01993498) who were prescribed adjuvant ET between 2012 and 2017, upon stratification by menopausal status, we evaluated adjuvant ET patterns including treatment change and patient-reported discontinuation and ET-associated toxicities and impact on QoL. Independent variables included clinical and demographic features, toxicities, and patient-reported outcomes. A machine-learning model to predict time to early discontinuation was trained and evaluated on a held-out validation set. Results Patient-reported discontinuation rate of the first prescribed ET at 4 years was 30% and 35% in 4122 postmenopausal and 2087 premenopausal patients, respectively. Switching to a new ET was associated with higher symptom burden, poorer QoL, and higher discontinuation rate. Early discontinuation rate of adjuvant ET before treatment completion was 13% in postmenopausal and 15% in premenopausal patients. The early discontinuation model obtained a C index of 0.62 in the held-out validation set. Many aspects of QoL, most importantly fatigue and insomnia (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QoL questionnaire 30), were associated with early discontinuation. Conclusion Tolerability and adherence to ET remains a challenge for patients who switch to a second ET. An early discontinuation model using patient-reported outcomes identifies patients likely to discontinue their adjuvant ET. Improved management of toxicities and novel more tolerable adjuvant ETs are needed for maintaining patients on treatment