Annals of Oncology 15:261-269, 2004
© 2004 European Society for Medical Oncology
Original Paper |
Factors influencing treatment recommendations in early-stage Hodgkin’s disease: a survey of physicians
Received 29 April 2003; revised 27 August 2003; accepted 4 September 2003Background:
The aim of this study was to explore variation in practice patterns and identify factors associated with physicians’ treatment decisions for early-stage Hodgkin’s disease.
Methods:
We conducted a one-time mail survey of oncologists randomly selected from directories of national oncology societies (n = 207) and Hodgkin’s disease experts (n = 147). The survey included questions on (i) physician factors, (ii) preferred treatment choices for six case scenarios of early-stage Hodgkin’s disease that varied by patient factors, and (iii) thresholds for changing treatment recommendations.
Results:
The response rate was 50%. For non-bulky Hodgkin’s disease, 69% of respondents chose combined modality therapy (CMT). On multivariate analysis, physician factors that independently predicted for choice of CMT included a high Hodgkin’s disease case load (P = 0.02) and a high percentage of patients enrolled in clinical trials (P = 0.05). Radiation oncologists had a lower threshold for adding radiation therapy (P = 0.02). More experience with second malignancy cases and longer time in practice were associated with a higher threshold for adding radiation therapy (P = 0.04 and P = 0.008, respectively). In stratified analyses, treatment decisions of non-experts were significantly influenced by physician factors, but not by patient factors. Conversely, choices of Hodgkin’s disease experts were insensitive to all physician factors, but experts were significantly more likely to select chemotherapy alone in young women and CMT in older patients.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that physician factors including practice type and experience may in part explain variation in practice pattern for Hodgkin’s disease therapy. Hodgkin’s disease experts are more likely to tailor therapy according to individual patient factors.
1 Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA; 2 Department of Biostatistical Sciences, 3 Department of Adult Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA
Key words: Hodgkin’s disease, physician survey, treatment decision
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