Breast cancer patients spend more time at imaging appointments

Patients fighting breast cancer already face taxing physical and emotional obstacles—but a recent study found they are also facing an increase in the number of imaging appointments.

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia noted patients have more repeat visits for imaging than they did 20 years ago, with some appointments consist of multiple types of imaging.

"The burden to the patient is increasing substantially," Richard Bleicher, MD, surgical oncologist at Fox Chase said in a statement. "The number of days patients are having mammograms, MRIs, and ultrasounds is going up steadily year by year. They're having imaging done more frequently on separate dates during the preoperative interval than ever before. It's surprising."

The team of researchers led by Bleicher studied more than 65,000 patients with a median age of 75, with their preoperative interval lasting 37 days on average. Patients who were diagnosed with metastatic disease or DCIS were removed from the study because their treatment requires a different approach to imaging.

Data showed that in 1992, about one-in-20 cancer patients diagnosed with invasive non-metastic cancer underwent imaging twice or more during the preoperative interval. By 2005, that number had increased to one-in-five patients.

Single imaging visits also increased in multiple imaging types rising from 4.3 percent in 1992 to 27.1 percent in 2005.

This information led Bleicher and colleagues to wonder how doctors are affecting patients burden in terms of cost, as well as time.

"I wanted to take a look at how things have been changing for patients and how many times they have to travel back and forth to get more imaging," said Bleicher. "Physicians need to keep in mind that it's hard enough for working people to take off from work and trek back and forth to appointments, but older people have infirmities, and it's harder to get around. The coordination of care is very important. We need to focus more on the burden to the patient."

Bleicher says that it would be in the best interest of both patients and physicians to ask themselves if additional imaging is necessary. He and his team of researchers will continue studying ways to improve imaging on breast cancer patients, "We want to see whether or not there is a more efficient method of imaging the patients so that we're improving outcomes without increasing costs."