A multisite survey on patient perspectives of breast cancer risk assessment and supplemental breast cancer screening tools.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate patient perspectives on breast cancer, risk assessment, and screening tools.

METHODS

This IRB-approved HIPAA-compliant study included an anonymous 12-question survey administered to female patients at 4 medical clinics (2 radiology, 1 internal medicine and 1 gynecology) in Northern California during May-June 2024. Results were compared using Fisher exact tests between groups. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

Surveys were completed by 319 patients at radiology (160), gynecology (80) and internal medicine (79) clinics. On a scale of 1 (not concerned) to 5 (extremely concerned), 34.7% (111/319) reported 4 or 5 out of 5 concern for developing breast cancer. Among respondents not aware of their lifetime risk, 77.2% (85/110) were interested in obtaining a risk assessment. Most respondents (80.5% (257/319)) reported they would be comfortable with breast cancer risk assessment derived from their screening mammogram by AI-based methods, compared to 31.0% (99/319) using personal/family history obtained from a survey. Patients surveyed at gynecology and radiology offices preferred obtaining their risk results from their gynecologist (82.5% (66/80)) (p ≤ 0.001), (57.3% (90/157)) (p = 0.006), and patients surveyed at the internal medicine clinic (63.3% (50/79) (p = 0.081) preferred their PCP. If found to be at increased risk, 90.3% (288/319) of patients reported interest in additional screening tests. Most patients at increased breast cancer risk (72% (111/154)) reported interest in genetic testing, compared with 50% (84/165) of patients not at increased breast cancer risk (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Patients demonstrated a strong interest in AI-based risk assessment using their screening mammogram, and those at higher risk expressed interest in additional breast cancer screening tools and genetic testing.