Impact of Guideline Conformity on Breast Cancer Therapy: Results of a 13-year Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: To date, few studies have investigated whether the implementation of national breast cancer guidelines fulfills the goal to optimize the national standard of care. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate retrospectively the guideline-related 13-year data on breast cancer patients treated at our institution.

Patients And Methods: In a retrospective cohort study, the records of a total of 2,231 patients with primary breast cancer treated during the period of 1992-2005 at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Ulm, Germany, were analyzed. Based on the German national Step 3 (S3) guideline, a model was created to classify groups according to therapy 'conforming' and 'non-conforming' to guideline recommendations.

Results: In 2005, 70.2% of all patients included received both surgical and systemic adjuvant therapies conforming to the guideline. Guideline-conforming treatment was accompanied with significant advantages in terms of recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OAS) rates.

Conclusions: It has to be demanded that breast cancer patients are treated in conformity with the S3 guidelines. The reasons for a treatment not conforming to the guidelines should be analyzed for the detection of barrier factors, in order to optimize adherence to the guidelines and therefore to prolong RFS and OAS.