TREATMENT DECISION-MAKING IN WOMEN NEWLY-DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST-CANCER

The purpose of this study was to explore the hypothesis that women wit h breast cancer had specific preferences about the degree of control t hey, wanted over treatment decision making. One hundred fifty women, n ewly diagnosed with breast cancel; were interviewed and their preferen ces for participation in treatment decision making were established us ing a measurement tool designed to elicit decision-making preferences (Degner LF, Sloan JF. Decision making during serious illness. What rol e do patients really want to play? J Clin Epidemiol 1992,45:944-50). T wo hundred women with benign breast disease served as a descriptive co mparison group. Unfolding theory (Coombs CH. A theory of data. New Yor k: John Wiley & Sons, 1964) provided a means of analyzing the data so that the degree of control preferred by each woman could be establishe d The majority of the newly diagnosed women preferred to play a passiv e role in treatment decision making. leaving the decision-making respo nsibility to their physician, whereas the benign control group preferr ed a collaborative role in which joint decisions could be made between the patient and the physician. The implications of the results for pa tient participation are discussed.