Ethnic Differences in the Impact of Breast Cancer on Employment Status, Financial Situation, and Quality of Life

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this study is to learn more about how being treated for breast cancer affects patients' employment, financial situation, and quality of life on a short-term basis and on a long term basis. Most studies of employment after breast cancer have focused on Caucasian women.This study will evaluate the impact of breast cancer on the lives of women from different ethnic groups.

Official Title
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Breast Cancer and the Workforce: Ethnic Differences in the Impact of Breast Cancer on Employment Status, Financial Situation, and Quality of Life (BCW)

Conditions
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Breast Cancer

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: survey web-based or telephone interview
* Behavioral: survey web-based or telephone interview


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Breast cancer survivors Pathologic diagnosis of stage I-III breast cancer Paid employment (full time or part time) at time of consent or in the three months prior to diagnosis Age 18 to 64 years (inclusive) The ability to give informed consent in Chinese (Mandarin), English, Korean, or Spanish.at MSK, New York Presbyterian Queens and Queens Medical Associates At NYC Health & Hospitals/ Lincoln Medical Center, patients must be able to give consent in English or Spanish. At the time of enrollment, participants must still be undergoing chemotherapy, undergoing radiation therapy, or planning surgery unless surgery is to be the only treatment modality. Those for whom treatment consists of surgery alone may have had their operation no more than 2 months prior to study enrollment. Participants need not have undergone surgical reconstruction prior to enrollment if the plan is to delay this procedure until after primary treatment is completed. Comparison group Paid employment (full time or part time) at the time of consent Age 18 to 64 years (inclusive) and within an age range that is 5 years above or below that of the nominating or matched survivor The ability to give informed consent in the same language as the nominating survivor Membership in the same ethnic group as the nominating survivor Not treated for cancer in the past year (other than non-melanoma skin cancer) Exclusion Criteria: N/A

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 64 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Breast cancer survivors<br>Women being treated for stage I-III breast cancer who were employed prior to this diagnosis will be recruited in their physicians' offices. | Behavioral: survey web-based or telephone interview<br>* Patients will be asked to complete a questionnaire at baseline, and then one at follow up, 3-4 months after treatment completion. The patient will be contacted one and two years after the completion of their follow up questionnaire for a brief one-question survey regarding current employment status. A member of the study team will call a subset of patients who have completed both baseline and follow-up surveys to clarify responses to previous questions. Patients will be considered lost to follow- up if surveys A or C have not been completed two years from the participant's consent date (participants who enroll but do not complete survey A are not prompted for survey C). Deviations will not be filed until the end of the study, as there are opportunities over the course of study follow- up to collect previously missing information.<br>|
| Comparison group<br>Peer controls will be nominated by participants in the breast cancer survivor group or recruited by community outreach and matched for age, language, and ethnicity. This cohort is no longer recruiting. | Behavioral: survey web-based or telephone interview<br>* Patients will be asked to complete a questionnaire at baseline, and then one at follow up, 3-4 months after treatment completion. All three follow-up contact methods (email, postcard, call) contain the same question regarding current employment status with minor modifications in formatting. However, the employment question asked in all three follow-up contact methods is shown in the Postcard_Template document. Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic study staff will be working from home. Therefore, calls will be made via MSK-approved platforms (e.g. Jabber, etc.). Participants who express concerns or request assistance related to COVID-19 will be referred to publicly available resources as needed (e.g., call 311 for access to health care or food panties, etc.) and will be noted in internal tracking logs. The data collected for these internal tracking logs will be managed through a REDCap database.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| To compare the impact of breast cancer on (a) employment status, (b) financial situation, and (c) QoL. |  | 3 years | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| To identify barriers to employment and correlates of employment status, financial situation, and QoL. |  | 3 years | 
| To develop the methodology to evaluate discrimination in the labor market using a validated instrument and to determine whether or not labor market discrimination is exacerbated by a diagnosis of breast cancer. |  | 3 years | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Sociodemographic, Ethnicity, Work-related, Health system, QOL, Questionnaires, 10-071