This is a provocative and compelling study. I applaud Dr. Herman and his team. The take-home message was beautifully articulated,” said presscast moderator Steven J. O’Day, MD, Director of Clinical Research at the Beverly Hills Cancer Center and Adjunct Member of the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Los Angeles.

“Decisions about the best surveillance and chemoprevention are difficult to make even when we know the accurate risk, but only 10% of women [in this study] knew their accurate risk, making these decisions much more difficult if not impossible,” Dr. O’Day continued.

Much Work to Do

“Despite the ongoing extensive awareness campaigns and media coverage, we still have a lot of work to do. A study like this sets the record straight on how far we have to go,” he stated.

“Although we have multiple tools that can project risk for a patient and quantify it, implementing this in the primary and tertiary care settings is a huge hurdle to overcome. Chemoprevention is not trivial in terms of cost and side effects, and without accurate information we can’t select an intervention,” Dr. O’Day emphasized. ■

Disclosure: Dr. O’Day reported no potential conflicts of interest.