Nurse-led telephone-based consultations for adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) may be a promising strategy to increase adherence among women with breast cancer, according to a recent study.
Standard of care for women diagnosed with non-metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer includes daily adjuvant endocrine therapy for 5 or 10 years. However, adherence may be affected by AET-related adverse events.
In this study, researchers interviewed 18 women who were prescribed AET for their breast cancer in the last 5 years and reported AET-related issues. All women had participated in at least two motivational interviewing-guided consultations over a year and were asked about their perceptions of the intervention.
“Motivational interviewing (MI) is a theoretically based and person-centered approach that guides open patient-provider discussions about self-management to enhance patient motivation and drive behavior change,” the researchers explained.
Three main themes were identified from the interviews. The consultations were described as a person-centered experience and as providing key information about AET.
“Participants expressed that MI-guided consultations provided by a nurse navigator focused on their experience with and concerns about AET,” the researchers wrote. “Throughout the intervention, participants reported feeling important and actively supported by their nurse navigator.”
In addition, interviewees said the consultations were supportive of present and future AET experience.
“Although the perceived benefits of attending MI-guided consultations varied among participants in terms of motivation, side-effect management, and AET adherence, participants expressed that taking part in the intervention appeared to play a crucial role in reducing negative emotions related to AET-related issues,” the researchers wrote.
In all, the interviews revealed that women perceived a variety of benefits from the MI consultations, but taken overall, support further quantitative assessment of this approach as a way of supporting women with AET-related issues.
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