Breast cancer survivorship care plans (SCP) have limited content addressing women’s health issues. This trial tested if young breast cancer survivors who receive a web-based, women’s health SCP were more likely to improve on at least one of four targeted issues (hot flashes, fertility-related concerns, contraception and vaginal symptoms) compared to attention controls.
A randomized controlled trial recruited female survivors ages 18–45 at diagnosis, 18–50 at enrollment, completed primary cancer treatment, and had a significant women’s health issue: moderate fertility-related concerns; ≥4 hot flashes/day with ≥1 of moderate severity; ≥1 moderate vaginal atrophy symptom; or not contracepting/using less effective methods. Survivors underwent stratified, block randomization with equal allocation to intervention and control groups. The intervention group accessed the online SCP; controls accessed curated resource lists. In intention-to-treat analysis, the primary outcome of improvement in at least one issue by 24 weeks was compared by group.
182 participants (86 intervention, 96 control), mean age 40.0±5.9 and 4.4±3.2 years since diagnosis, were randomized. Sixty-one intervention group participants (70.9%) improved, compared to 55 controls (57.3%) (OR 1.82, 95%CI0.99–3.4, p=0.057). The following issue-specific improvements were observed in the intervention versus control arms: fertility-related concerns (27.9% vs. 14.6%, OR 2.3, 95%CI 1.1–4.8); hot flashes (58.5% vs. 55.8%, OR 1.1, 95%CI 0.57–2.2); vaginal symptoms (42.5% vs. 40.7%, OR 1.1, 95%CI 0.6–2.0); contraception (50% vs. 42.6%, OR 1.4, 95%CI 0.74–2.5).
In young breast cancer survivors, a novel, web-based SCP did not result in more change in the primary outcome of improvement in at least one of the 4 targeted women’s health issues, over the attention control condition. The intervention was associated with improved infertility concerns, supporting efficacy of disseminating accessible, evidence-based women’s health information to this population.