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Project Title The Patient-Physician Interface: How Breast Cancer Patients NavigateFertility Concerns and Treatment Options

Researcher: Karrie Snyder, PhD (IRB Approval STU00012672) at Northwestern University - Department of Sociology

Study Abstract: This research study looks at how younger women (under 40) and their doctors discuss issues regarding possible fertility impairment due to cancer treatment, how newly diagnosed women make treatment choices (including fertility conserving treatment options), and how fertility issues impact these women’s lives after cancer. Research has shown that while cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy, can impair a cancer patient’s future fertility, doctors and patients often do not discuss possible fertility risks or what can be done to help safeguard a woman’s fertility potential (such as emergency IVF). By interviewing both younger women with a history of breast cancer and physicians who treat such women, this research will look at how treatment decisions are made particularly fertility conserving treatment options and will identify factors that facilitate the discussion of fertility related issues between patient and physician. The research also examines how having a breast cancer diagnosis influences a woman’s life after cancer including her future family plans and family relationships including those with parents and partners.

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