RAND Europe conducted a study on the societal impact of early breast cancer. This study was divided into three interconnected phases, the first being. a mapping review on the published literature on the impacts of treatment of early breast cancer, which revealed existing gaps in the evidence on the non-clinical impacts of treatment of early breast cancer. This study aims to enrich the evidence base on the broader impacts of early breast cancer.

Cover: A Review of the Research Landscape for Treatment of Early Breast Cancer
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A Review of the Research Landscape for Treatment of Early Breast Cancer

Implications for future research, policy and practice

by Ioana Ghiga, Camilla d'Angelo, Sarah King, Josephine Exley, Amelia Harshfield, Daniela Rodriguez-Rincon, Brandi Leach, Catriona Manville, Sonja Marjanovic

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Research Question

  1. What is published in the literature on the impact of treatment of early breast cancer?

RAND Europe conducted a study on the societal impact of early breast cancer. This study was divided into three interconnected phases, which together aim to enrich the evidence base on the broader health, societal and economic impacts of treatment of early breast cancer, using a mixed methods approach. It highlights the available evidence and state of research on early breast cancer and considers the impact and 'cost' of disease progression for patients and their carers, as well as wider society. The first phase consisted of a mapping review on the published literature on the impacts of treatment of early breast cancer. The review revealed existing gaps in the evidence on the non-clinical impacts of treatment of early breast cancer to patients, carers or wider society. Studies of treatment effectiveness clearly dominate the literature and there is much less evidence on other types of outcomes extending beyond traditional treatment effectiveness evaluations. Yet understanding the wider impacts of cancer survivorship is important to better understand the impacts beyond treatment of breast cancer, and there is a need for more detailed analyses of these to inform better-informed decision making.

Key Findings

  • Most primary research that considers the impacts from treating early breast cancer report on either observational studies (48.0%) or randomised controlled trials (RCTs) (41.1%).
  • The most frequently reported outcomes across the pool of analysed primary papers are survival (55.0%) and recurrence (53.7%).
  • Chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy are the most common therapies (38.3%, 36.2% and 29.2% of all primary research studies respectively), followed by hormonal therapy (22.3%) and biological therapy (12.8%).
  • Only 15.6% of all primary papers in the sample analysed for the mapping review mentioned the country of focus for the studies they report on in the title and abstract, covering 33 countries, across diverse regions globally.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Introduction

  • Chapter Two

    Methodology

  • Chapter Three

    Results

  • Chapter Four

    Discussion

  • Chapter Five

    References

  • Annex A

    Eligibility criteria and developing search terms

  • Annex B

    Final search sequence for the mapping review

Research conducted by

The research described in this report was sponsored by F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and conducted by RAND Europe.

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