Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women and there are about 2.8 million breast cancer survivors in the US. A mastectomy is highly recommended for local advanced patients, and postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) is a major and effective treatment method for these patients. However, acute and chronic radiogenic side effects can seriously decrease patients' quality of life after radiotherapy Among various cancer sites, expenditures for female breast cancer remain as the highest. New technologies keep disseminating into radiotherapy field and are used to treat breast cancer patients. Usually the more advanced radiotherapy techniques are more expensive to deliver, but they may yield better survival and cost savings due to lower toxicities. Currently clinical and policy decision making is challenging because of the many possible treatment strategies, the rapid technological advancement of radiotherapy, escalating costs, and an insufficient evidence base. Our long term research goal is improve treatment outcomes for breast cancer patients. This project will focus on the impact of advanced radiotherapy modalities on postmastectomy patients, and our hypothesis is that for left sided postmastectomy patients, the predicted risk of radiogenic side effects and the total treatment costs can be significantly reduced by using advanced-technology radiotherapies.
In aim 1, retrospective in-silico clinical trial will be performed to compare the predicted outcomes after various modalities for a sample of left sided PMRT patients. The cost-effectiveness analysis of these modalities will be performed in aim 2 by using Markov model and risk values from aim 1 and literature. My long term career goal is to become an independent investigator and leader of a multi- disciplinary team focused on breast cancer. This K22 award will provide me with the necessary training and support to accomplish the following goals: 1) to obtain more hands-on population- based research experience; 2) to learn cost-effectiveness analysis of different radiotherapy modalities for breast cancer treatment; 3) to translate current risk/cost-effectiveness calculations into daily clinical practic; 4) to develop the skills and knowledge needed to be an independent investigator. To achieve these goals, I have proposed a detailed career development plan, including taking short courses and workshops, attending seminars and professional meetings, supervised reading, meetings with my advisory committee regularly to discuss knowledge deficits and training progress, and obtaining practice experience by working on proposed research plan. This K22 research will form the basis for a study to develop a more personalized approach to treat all breast cancer patients (whole breast, partial breast and postmastectomy patients): compare existing techniques and develop novel approaches to improve outcome, taking into account the risk of side effects and cost-effectiveness. This will be proposed in an R01 grant application 1 year before the end of the K award.
Through this proposal, we will improve understanding of the benefits, weaknesses and cost-effectiveness of various radiotherapy modalities, especially advanced-technology modalities, in the treatment of postmastectomy breast cancer patients. It will facilitate offering evidence-based, effective patient care and can potentially benefit millions of breast cancer patients in the United States.
