The long-term psychosocial consequences of screen-detected ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a risk factor for invasive breast cancer (IBC). The prognosis of DCIS is considerably better than for IBC, yet women do not distinguish between the threat. We aimed to compare the psychosocial consequences of screen-detected DCIS and IBC, and to examine this comparison over time. METHODS: We surveyed a Danish mammography-screening cohort from 2004 to 2018. We assessed outcomes at six-time points: baseline, 1, 6, 18, 36 months, and 14 years after the screening. We measured psychosocial consequences with the Consequences Of Screening - Breast Cancer (COS-BC): a condition-specific questionnaire that is psychometrically validated and encompasses 14 psychosocial dimensions. We used weighted linear models with generalized estimating equations to compare responses between groups. We used a 1% level of significance. RESULTS: 170 out of 1309 women were diagnosed with breast cancer (13.0%). 23 were diagnosed with DCIS (13.5%) and 147 with IBC (86.5%). From baseline to six months after diagnosis, there were no significant differences between women with DCIS and IBC. However, mean scores indicated that IBC generally was more affected than DCIS. After six months, we observed that women with DCIS and IBC might be affected differently in the long term; mean scores and mean differences showed that IBC were more affected on some scales, while DCIS were on others. CONCLUSION: Overall, the DCIS and IBC experienced similar levels of psychosocial consequences. Women might benefit from renaming DCIS to exclude cancer nomenclature.

Methodological Quality of PROMs in Psychosocial Consequences of Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Systematic Review.

Objective: This systematic review aimed to assess the adequacy of measurement properties in Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) used to quantify psychosocial consequences of colorectal cancer screening among adults at average risk. Methods: We searched four databases for eligible studies: MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Embase. Our approach was inclusive and encompassed all empirical studies that quantified aspects of psychosocial consequences of colorectal cancer screening. We assessed the adequacy of PROM development and measurement properties for content validity using The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) risk of bias checklist. Results: We included 33 studies that all together used 30 different outcome measures. Two PROMs (6.7%) were developed in a colorectal cancer screening context. COSMIN rating for PROM development was inadequate for 29 out of 30 PROMs (97%). PROMs lacked proper cognitive interviews and pilot studies and therefore had no proven content validity. According to the COSMIN checklist, 27 out of 30 PROMs (90%) had inadequate measurement properties for content validity. Discussion: The majority of included PROMs had inadequate development and measurement properties. These findings shed light on the trustworthiness of the included studies' findings and call for reevaluation of existing evidence on the psychosocial consequences of colorectal cancer screening. To provide trustworthy evidence about the psychosocial consequences of colorectal cancer screening, editors could require that studies provide evidence of the methodological quality of the PROM. Alternatively, authors should transparently disclose their studies' methodological limitations in measuring psychosocial consequences of screening validly.