Factors influencing the decision-making process for breast surgery in women likely to face breast cancer: a cross-sectional study

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the main neoplasia affecting women worldwide. Breast conserving surgery (BCS) or modified radical mastectomy (Mx) are both applicable with no difference between patients treated by these surgeries in terms of quality of life, local recurrence rate, and overall survival. The surgical decision today favors the surgeon-patient dialog, in which the patient is involved in the therapeutic decision. Several factors influence the decision-making process. This study aims to investigate these factors in Lebanese women likely to face BC and before being operated on, unlike other studies that targeted patients who had already been operated on. METHODS: The authors conducted a study to investigate the factors influencing the choice of breast surgery. To be eligible for this study, participants had to be Lebanese women, with no age limit and willing to participate voluntarily. A questionnaire form was used to collect data related to patient demographics, health, surgery, and relevant factors. Data analysis was performed by statistical tests using IBM SPSS Statistics software (version 25) and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft 365). Significant factors (defined as P<0.05) were than used to determine the factors that influenced women’s decision-making. RESULTS: Data from 380 participants were analyzed. The majority of participants were young (41.58% were between 19 and 30 years old), living in Lebanon (93.3%), and had a bachelor’s degree or higher (83.95%). Almost half of the women (55.26%) are married and have children (48.95%). Among the participants, 97.89% had no personal history of BC, and 95.79% had not undergone any breast surgery. The majority of participants indicated that their primary care physician and surgeon influenced their decision on the type of surgery they take (56.32 and 61.58%, respectively). Only 18.16% of respondents said they had no preference for Mx over BCS. While the others listed their reasons and concerns for choosing Mx, including: concern about recurrence (40.26%), concern about residual cancer (31.05%). 17.89% of the participants justify the reason for choosing Mx rather than BCS, by the fact that they lack information on BCS. Most of the participants confirmed the importance of clarifying all information about BC and treatment options before being affected by a malignancy (71.84%) of which 92.28% preferred to participate in the next online lectures about this topic. The assumption of equal variance is assumed. Indeed, according to the Levene Test (F=1.354; P<0.05), there is a significant difference between the age categories of the group that prefers Mx (2.08) and the group that does not prefer Mx over BCS (1.77). Based on an independent samples t-test (t(380)=2.200; P<0.05). On the other hand, the preference of Mx over BCS is statistically dependent on the choice of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. Indeed, according to the χ(2)-test, the relationship between the two variables is significant (χ(2) (2)=8.345; P<0.05). The ‘Phi’ statistic measures the intensity of the relationship between the two variables in question (φ=0.148); therefore, the relationship between the preference of Mx rather than BCS and the asking of contralateral prophylactic Mx is strong and significant (P<0.05). However, there was no statistically significant dependence between the preference of Mx and the other factors studied (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: BC poses a problem for affected women, especially when they are asked to choose between a Mx or a BCS. Several complex factors affect and influence their decision and lead them to decide. Understanding these factors helps us to properly help these women choose. In this study, the authors demonstrated all the factors that can influence the choice of Lebanese women prospectively, and we stressed the need to explain all the modalities before being diagnosed.