A Multisite Survey on Patient Perspectives of Breast Cancer Risk Assessment and Supplemental Breast Cancer Screening Tools

OBJECTIVE:To evaluate patient perspectives on breast cancer, risk assessment, and screening tools. METHODS:This IRB-approved HIPAA-compliant study included an anonymous 12-question survey administered to female patients at 4 medical clinics (2 radiology, 1 internal medicine and 1 gynecology) in Northern California during May-June 2024. Results were compared using Fisher exact tests between groups. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS:Surveys were completed by 319 patients at radiology (160), gynecology (80) and internal medicine (79) clinics. On a scale of 1 (not concerned) to 5 (extremely concerned), 34.7% (111/319) reported 4 or 5 out of 5 concern for developing breast cancer. Among respondents not aware of their lifetime risk, 77.2% (85/110) were interested in obtaining a risk assessment. Most respondents (80.5% (257/319)) reported they would be comfortable with breast cancer risk assessment derived from their screening mammogram by AI-based methods, compared to 31.0% (99/319) using personal/family history obtained from a survey. Patients surveyed at gynecology and radiology offices preferred obtaining their risk results from their gynecologist (82.5% (66/80)) (p ≤ 0.001), (57.3% (90/157)) (p = 0.006), and patients surveyed at the internal medicine clinic (63.3% (50/79) (p = 0.081) preferred their PCP. If found to be at increased risk, 90.3% (288/319) of patients reported interest in additional screening tests. Most patients at increased breast cancer risk (72% (111/154)) reported interest in genetic testing, compared with 50% (84/165) of patients not at increased breast cancer risk (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION:Patients demonstrated a strong interest in AI-based risk assessment using their screening mammogram, and those at higher risk expressed interest in additional breast cancer screening tools and genetic testing.