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BOSTON - Concerns about fertility often influence how young women with breast cancer approach treatment decisions and are a reason for forgoing or delaying hormone-blocking therapy, a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators shows.
The findings, published online today by the journal
Cancer, reinforce the need for physicians to talk with patients about their fertility-related priorities and address them in treatment plans, the study authors write. Such conversations are important not only at the start of treatment but during its entire course, as patients' goals and preferences may change over time.
"Young women with breast cancer face unique challenges, including issues surrounding fertility," says the study's lead author Tal Sella, MD, of Dana-Farber. "For many premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, long-term endocrine therapy [which blocks hormones that feed the cancer's growth] may prevent patients from having children while treatment is under way. In this study, we explored the degree to which fertility concerns affect patients' decisions about receiving such therapy."