Abstract
Introduction: In breast cancer, adjuvant endocrine therapy improves
treatment outcomes. Though, not the whole patients completed their
scheduled treatment protocols. This study aimed to assess adherence to
oral hormonal therapy in Egyptian breast cancer patients. Patients and
methods: From February 2022 to May 2022, a cross-sectional study was
conducted at the National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer Hospital. An
interview was conducted, along with a survey to assess the adherence of
breast cancer patients to oral hormonal treatment. Adherence was
measured using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8).
Results: The survey was completed entirely by 300 patients. There were
98.3% females and 1.7 % males among the patients. 30% of the patients
belonged to this age group (40-50 years). The majority of patients were
postmenopausal (90.3%). 18% have a high level of education, while
53.3% are illiterates. 50.7% of patients have other chronic diseases.
44.7% prefer to get medication information from a physician, 27.7%
prefer pharmacists, and 27.7% get medication information from both.
99.7% of patients received proper medication counselling. As a result
of the MMAS-8 survey, 40.3% of all patients were high adherent to their
oral hormonal treatment, 32.7% of the patients have moderate adherence,
and 27% have low adherence. No subgroups (gender, age, educational
level, duration of endocrine therapy, Breast cancer stage, or other
co-morbidities) were significantly associated with adherence level.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates significantly high and moderate
adherence to oral endocrine therapy. Reasons for this could include
proper medication counselling in the setting and regular patients’
follow-up.