Relationships among patients’ ability to identify their cancer stage, knowledge of care options, and management of transitions.

224 Background: Discrepancies may exist between what oncologists communicate and what patients understand about their cancer stage. We explored women’s ability to correctly identify their stage of breast cancer among a sample of women recently diagnosed with nonmetastatic (Stage I-III) disease. Methods: As part of a cancer self-management study, we asked women with non-metastatic breast cancer to identify their stage of disease. Participants’ responses were compared to their electronic medical record (EMR) for validation. We calculated descriptive statistics and used logistic regression to examine relationships between knowledge of stage, demographic and clinical variables, and study outcomes (Control Preferences Scale- CPS, Knowledge of Care Options Test- KOCO, Measurement of Transitions Scale- MOT, Medical Communication Competence Scale- MCCS, Chronic Disease Self-Efficacy Scale- CDSE, Uncertainty in Illness Scale- MUIS-C, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale- HADS). Results: Participants (n= 100) had a mean age of 52.3 years (range 27-72). Per the EMR, 19 participants (19%) had Stage I breast cancer, 57 (57%) had Stage II, and 24 (24%) had Stage III. Twenty-nine participants (29%) were unable to correctly identify their stage of cancer. Of this group, 11 (39.3%) provided vague responses, 11 (39.3%) reported an incorrect stage, and 7 (25%) did not know/want to know their stage. Younger age (p=.0412) and earlier cancer stage (p=.0136) were predictive of correctly identifying cancer stage. Participants who at baseline had a greater knowledge of care options were more likely to correctly identify their cancer stage (KOCO, p=.0482). Those who correctly identified their cancer stage were better able to manage transitions over time (MOT, p=.0564) than those unable to identify their stage. Conclusions: Women who cannot correctly identify their cancer stage may neither understand its implications nor effectively participate in cancer self-management. Conversations about cancer stage should be revisited to ensure patients’ understanding. Future research should include women with Stage IV breast cancer to more completely investigate ability to identify cancer stage.