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Originally published as JCO Early Release 10.1200/JCO.2007.13.1870 on January 7 2008

Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 26, No 4 (February 1), 2008: pp. 523-526
© 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology.

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EDITORIAL

Moving Research From Bench to Bedside to Community: There Is Still More to Do

Katherine L. Kahn

RAND, Santa Monica; and David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, CA

Investment in biomedical research and healthcare in the United States and worldwide has never been greater.1 The substantial return on these investments is seen in the remarkable scientific breakthroughs of the past few decades and the continually accelerating advances in biomedical knowledge that promise to revolutionize health care and significantly improve health.2 Women with breast cancer have benefited from these advances, as the death rate from breast cancer has declined 20% over the last ten years.3-5 This has been attributed both to earlier-stage diagnoses in association with screening and to the early use of systemic adjuvant treatment aimed at eradicating or postponing micrometastases believed responsible for distant disease spread.6

The most recent overview of global trials evaluating adjuvant systemic therapy for early breast cancer, formulated by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group,7 reported that 5 years of treatment with the selective estrogen receptor modulator tamoxifen for women with estrogen receptor (ER) –positive breast cancer translated into a 12% absolute reduction in the likelihood of recurrence at 15 years (33% v 45%), and a 9% reduction in breast cancer–related death (26% v 35%).7,8 The magnitude of mortality reduction was almost three times as great at 15 years as it was at 5 years (9% v 3.6%), while the impact on recurrence was mainly seen in the first 5 years. The absolute difference in recurrence rates between those who used and did not use adjuvant tamoxifen for 5 years was 16% for node-positive and 9% for node-negative disease.

Multiple studies have addressed optimal duration of tamoxifen adjuvant treatment, including four trials showing significantly better outcomes for postmenopausal women associated with the use of 5 years compared with 2 years of tamoxifen therapy.9-12 The maturation of follow-up for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group trial13 and results of the Adjuvant Tamoxifen Longer Against Shorter and Adjuvant Tamoxifen Treatment Offer More trials,14-18 as well as other ongoing trials, will provide further basis for informing recommendations about treatment duration. The current standard recommendation of 5 years for adjuvant tamoxifen in women with ER-positive early breast cancer has been stable for several years.19

Beyond these advances, new studies have shown improved outcomes for postmenopausal women using aromatase inhibitors as initial adjuvant therapy or in a sequential approach beginning with tamoxifen and changing after 2, 3, or 5 years to an aromatase inhibitor. Across multiple studies of postmenopausal women, anastrozole or letrozole alone or in combination with tamoxifen and anastrozole, letrozole, or exemestane used sequentially after 2 years of tamoxifen have been associated with better outcomes than for women treated with tamoxifen alone or who received no adjuvant therapy. Improved outcomes have been documented in terms of disease-free survival, recurrence, and incidence of contralateral breast cancer, although overall survival benefit from aromatase inhibitors has not been clearly demonstrated to date.20-27 Continuing analyses have suggested outcomes improve even further with continuation of an aromatase inhibitor for up to 5 years after the completion of an initial adjuvant 5 year regimen of tamoxifen.28 Recommendations for initial adjunct treatment now include use of tamoxifen, anastrozole, or letrozole for 5 years’ duration or initial treatment with one of these agents followed by an alternate or with exemestane for 5 or more years of therapy.19

Still, important inquiries regarding the use of adjuvant hormone therapy remain unanswered. Which is the best initial treatment? Is 5 years the optimal duration of adjuvant treatment? Which subsets of patients will benefit from each of the available individual or combinations of adjuvant hormonal regimens? Under what circumstances will sequential treatment be more effective than sustained single-drug treatment? It is gratifying to know that these questions are currently under study.

A second important line of inquiry revolves around the prevention and treatment of side effects related to the use of selective estrogen receptor modulators and aromatase inhibitors. With tamoxifen, side effects include early onset of hot flashes and vaginal discharge and later onset of risk for thromboembolic events, endometrial cancer, and uterine sarcomas.7,29-35 With the aromatase inhibitors, prevalent side effects include milder hot flashes, anorexia, myalgias, arthralgias, bone loss, and fractures.21,22,36 The Multicenter Breast International Group Study is currently evaluating the effectiveness and morbidity profile of patients treated with tamoxifen, letrozole, and combinations of these.22 Further scientific inquiry into the prevention and treatment of morbidities in association with adjuvant treatment should be pursued. For many women receiving tamoxifen, symptoms persist either undetected or unmanaged.37-40 The same problem is emerging in relation to problem detection and management for postmenopausal women using aromatase inhibitors. For example, studies are in progress regarding how often diagnoses of osteopenia and osteoporosis should be sought with bone density studies in women using adjunct therapies. Should the threshold for initiating pharmacologic intervention to treat osteopenia or osteoporosis differ for women receiving and not receiving aromatase inhibitors?

Despite the need to systematically address these queries, multiple trials have shown that treatment with oral adjuvant hormone agents for at least 5 years after initial treatment improves patient outcomes. In this context, two new studies published in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology41,42 demonstrate substantial gaps between how biomedical and clinical scientists and clinicians intend adjuvant therapy to be used, and how it is used by patients in community settings. Owusu et al41 report that 49% of women at least 65 years of age with stage I-IIB ER-positive or indeterminate breast cancer who had initiated adjuvant tamoxifen therapy discontinued the drug earlier than 5 years after initiation. Partridge et al42 report that 12 months after treatment initiation, 12% to 19% of women were not taking the aromatase inhibitor as prescribed. The proportion of women not using the treatment as prescribed continued to increase annually, with lack of adherence noted for 21% to 38% of women 3 years after initiation of the treatment.

These findings illustrate that women with breast cancer are not receiving evidence-based care recommended by their physicians. Although tamoxifen or anastrozole therapy can be recommended for fewer than 5 years when used in conjunction with another agent, these investigators evaluated rates of adherence to prescribed medication, not a change in the physician's prescription. The influence on outcomes of the many possible patterns of lack of compliance with recommended treatment is not known. The extent to which expected outcomes would be hampered by patients using the drug intermittently or by cutting the daily, weekly, or monthly dose is not known.

For many diseases, the presence of side effects reduces the use of medications prescribed to prevent future complications.43 Several studies have documented side effects as the most important reason for women discontinuing their adjuvant hormone therapy.38,44-46 This suggests the importance of clinicians tracking the incidence, prevalence, and severity of treatment-associated side effects.47 Clinicians or their designated support staff should become experts in learning from patients their concerns about their diseases and also about symptoms and signs developed in association with treatments.39,43,48 Clinicians or their support personnel should systematically query patients to understand the extent to which patients are using prescribed treatments. When evidence suggests adjuvant treatments are not being used as recommended, clinicians should nonjudgmentally engage with the patient to understand the reasons for under-, mis-, or overuse and to discuss with their patients the challenges associated with long-term medication use.43 Other strategies for improving adherence to medication regimens are worth considering,43,49 including those developed for specific diseases, such as HIV infection,50,51 hypertension,52 and psychiatric illnesses.53,54

When symptoms cannot be prevented or treated, we now have a variety of alternate adjuvant hormone regimens that can be implemented to improve patient's experiences.19,55,56 Physicians and patients should consider the option of switching the adjuvant hormone regimen as an alternative to patients’ discontinuing adjuvant treatment altogether. Efficient care in this regard will require physicians to track how patients are tolerating adjunct medications. Serial assessments of patient symptoms and signs and documentation of patients’ use of prescribed medications will allow clinicians to identify patients at risk for discontinuing medications and to potentially avoid that outcome. Analyses categorizing outcomes for patients who switch adjuvant regimens—as an alternative to stopping treatment in patients with refractory symptoms—would be a welcome addition to the knowledge base of clinicians.

In 1993, DiMatteo et al57 showed provider characteristics influence patient's adherence to medical treatments. Recently, one observational study indicated that demographics, other than age, contributed little to predicting long-term compliance with tamoxifen use. Symptoms were the most important predictor of discontinuing long-term use.38 However, even after adjustment for symptom onset and intensity, patient-centered care was the most important predictor of ongoing adjunct tamoxifen use in the setting of new onset breast cancer.

When financial strain associated with the cost of adjuvant medications is an issue, patients can be referred to Partnership for Assistance, a national program supported by America's pharmaceutical companies. Doctors, other health care providers, patient advocacy organizations, and community groups can help qualifying patients who lack prescription coverage obtain the medicines they need through public or private programs.58,59

Several catalogues of interventions shown in randomized trials to increase long-term adherence to medications have been documented.43,49,60 Haynes et al60 noted the complexity of the successful interventions typically involving combinations of more convenient care, information, reminders, self-monitoring, reinforcement, counseling, family therapy, psychologic therapy crisis intervention, manual telephone follow-up, and supportive care. In contrast to the many trials evaluating the efficacy of various adjuvant drug regimens that have been completed or underway, trials evaluating the effectiveness of adjuvant treatment in community settings and trials evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to increase compliance with recommended long-term treatment regimens are rare. This is surprising because medication adherence may be the most mutable predictor of patient outcomes for patients with chronic disease and for risk of recurrence in treated diseases such as breast cancer.42,61

As the evidence accumulates to show that prescriptions for ongoing adjunct cancer treatments in community settings are not being implemented for substantial numbers of patients, it is important to conceptualize, implement, and study the effectiveness of interventions designed to assure that evidence-based interventions are used. Recent research in community venues have revealed important problems that threaten the usefulness of the extraordinary advances in basic and clinical science made in recent decades.62,63 If treatments known to extend the quality and quantity of life are not used, they will not be effective. Now is the time to move research into the real world of community settings that include the heterogeneous sets of patients who represent our population and are cared for by a diverse set of providers in a rich mix of settings. When we do this, a new set of queries will reveal themselves. Who is prescribing the initial set of adjuvant treatments for patients? For how long does that physician follow the patient? Which physician specialty does the patient see most often and for the longest duration? Is there one configuration of the patient's team of providers that is most effective in supporting patient's ongoing use of adjuvant treatment? Does this change for patients with complex health care situations, including those with multiple medications, comorbidities, providers, settings, or venues of care? When patients have multiple physicians, how are decisions made regarding which one is responsible for systematically evaluating signs or symptoms in association with the treatment? Who monitors compliance? Who should? Is there a taxonomy of reasons for discontinuation that providers could readily use to categorize risk for medication discontinuation or to motivate interventions to sustain adherence? Because many patients with breast cancer receive most of their follow-up care from cancer physicians other than the first treating physician or from noncancer physicians, studying medication adherence in a community setting may generate results applicable to the largest cohort of patients with breast cancer eligible for long-term use of oral adjunct therapies.

The empirical data presented in two well-performed studies41,42 in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology demonstrate that brilliant laboratory and clinical breakthroughs are only the beginning of the journey toward improved population health. To complete the translation of the basic and clinical sciences to improve health for breast cancer survivors who populate the communities of America and beyond, we need to understand the types of structure and processes of care that best support the initiation of evidence-based interventions.43,60,61 To improve outcomes for breast cancer, we also need to understand the structure and processes that are most effective in helping patients to continue long-term use of oral adjunct medications. With so many multifaceted biomedical advances in recent decades, this is not a problem unique to breast cancer. However, with the solid foundation of so many trials across so many years in this disease, breast cancer experts, in collaboration with population and health care delivery scientists, can lead the way toward a new breakthrough that will better align scientific advances and improvements in population health.

AUTHOR'S DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The author(s) indicated no potential conflicts of interest.

NOTES

published online ahead of print at www.jco.org on January 7, 2008

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