FEASIBILITY OF BREAST CARE NURSE MULTI-STEP EVALUATION IN IMPROVING QUALITY OF CARE FOR BREAST CANCER PATIENTS ambrogio.londero@gmail.com

PW04-03

FEASIBILITY OF BREAST CARE NURSE MULTI-STEP EVALUATION IN IMPROVING QUALITY OF CARE FOR BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

7

Italy

Oral or Poster

Breast care nurses (BCN) help clinicians in evaluating treatment risks in breast cancer (BC) patients. This study evaluates the feasibility of a BCN-led, multi-step assessment that included Katz Activities of Daily Living (ADL) questionnaire, Norton Scale, G8 Geriatric Screening Tool (for women aged ≥70), Distress termometer, and Conley Scale for fall risk in patients with BC.

We enrolled 402 consecutive BC patients diagnosed during 2024. The primary endpoint was the percentage of participants who completed all 5 tools (6 for individuals ≥70), with feasibility established as an overall completion rate of at least 75%.

Mean age was 66 ±12 years (41% ≥70). Non-completion rates were below 10% for individuals <70 and 12.0% for those ≥70 for all tools, with the exception of the distress termometer (24.1% <70 and 36.9% ≥70). The median number of BCN visits per patient was 5 (IQR 4-7). In multivariate analysis, each additional year of age correlated with a 1% reduction in expected visits (MR 0.99, CI.95 0.99-0.99; p<0.05). Visits were highest at intermediate TNM stages, exhibiting an inverse U-shaped relationship with lower visits at stages I and IV. Additionally, visits were 43% lower in patients with borderline initial diagnoses compared to those with confirmed malignancies (MR 0.57, CI.95 0.40-0.80; p<0.05).

A structured, BCN-led, multi-step evaluation is feasible. However, psychological distress screening demonstrated the highest refusal rates, especially among older women. Patient age, disease stage, and the certainty of the diagnosis significantly influenced BCN workload.