Abstract A011: Effectiveness of an online decision support tool in communicating information about treatment options and related risks for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)


 Introduction: Treatment options for women diagnosed with DCIS require careful consideration of the potential risks and benefits. An interactive decision support tool (DST) was developed to provide information about these options, including their potential long-term risk. The DST was implemented through the website www.dcisoptions.org in collaboration with the AFT-25 Comparing an Operation to Monitoring, with or without Endocrine Therapy (COMET), for low-risk DCIS study. Methods: The DST provides personalized prediction of the potential clinical impact of six different treatment options over a 10-year period. Women were asked to select one or more option, and to complete two surveys - one prior to interacting with the DST and one following interaction. Chi-square tests were used to compare the distribution of age group and DCIS grade among women who completed both surveys and those who completed the pre-tool survey only. Mean age was compared using the t-test and median age was compared using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. The signed-rank test was used to compare the median age. The cohort that answered both surveys was analyzed for potential differences in response (pre- versus post-tool). The McNemar test was used to compare percentage distributions and the paired t-test was used to compare mean responses for questions using the Likert scale. A signed rank test was used to compare median changes from pre- to post-tool. Statistical significance was defined as P<0.05 in a two-sided test. The primary endpoint of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the DST in communicating information about DCIS treatment options and related risk predictions. Results: Data were collected from January 2019 to April 2022 for women (non-COMET participants) who completed the DST. Of those 976 women, 831 (85%) completed the pre-tool survey only and 145 (15%) completed both the pre- and post-tool survey. The mean age was 54.4 (9.8 SD) years. 73% of women had low/intermediate-grade DCIS, while 19% had high-grade DCIS. Among women who submitted both surveys, average time spent completing the DST was 10 minutes. Awareness of the treatment options prior to use of the DST was high (90%), except for active surveillance (85.2%) and bilateral mastectomy (84.3%). Awareness post-tool did not change significantly except for active surveillance (85.2% to 96.5% (p=0.004)). Among women who completed both surveys, the percentage who correctly identified that the chance of dying from DCIS is ‘Very Low’ increased from 60.0% to 73.8% (p<0.0001). The median estimated risk of dying from DCIS in 10 years decreased from 9% to 3% (p<0.0001). A total of 101/132 (76.5%) women that responded to a specific question about the DST found it to be ‘Very Helpful’ or ‘Helpful’ in making a treatment decision for DCIS. A limitation of the study is the lower response rate to the post-tool survey. Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrated that utilization of a DST by women diagnosed with DCIS may enable value-congruent decision making and potentially result in improved patient outcomes.
 Citation Format: Thomas Lynch, Ann Partridge, E. Shelley Hwang, Alastair Thompson, Elizabeth Frank, Donna Pinto, Deborah Collyar, Desiree Basila, Terry Hyslop, Marc Ryser, Anna Weiss, Anna Rapperport, Rinaa Punglia, Elissa Ozanne. Effectiveness of an online decision support tool in communicating information about treatment options and related risks for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Rethinking DCIS: An Opportunity for Prevention?; 2022 Sep 8-11; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2022;15(12 Suppl_1): Abstract nr A011.