Creation of a new clinical framework – why women choose mastectomy versus breast conserving therapy

Jeffrey Gu, Gary Groot

Clinical medicine has lagged behind other fields in understanding and utilizing frameworks to guide research. In this article, we introduce a new framework to examine why women choose mastectomy versus breast conserving therapy in early stage breast cancer, and highlight the importance of utilizing a conceptual framework to guide clinical research. The framework we present was developed through integrating previous literature, frameworks, theories, models, and the author's past research. We present a conceptual framework that illustrates the central domains that influence women's choice between mastectomy versus breast conserving therapy. These have been organized into three broad constructs: clinicopathological factors, physician factors, and individual factors with subgroups of sociodemographic, geographic, and individual belief factors. The aim of this framework is to provide a comprehensive basis to describe, examine, and explain the factors that influence women's choice of mastectomy versus breast conserving therapy at the individual level. We have developed a framework with the purpose of helping health care workers and policy makers better understand the multitude of factors that influence a patient's choice of therapy at an individual level. We hope this framework is useful for future scholars to utilize, challenge, and build upon in their own work on decision-making in the setting of breast cancer. For clinician-researchers who have limited experience with frameworks, this paper will highlight the importance of utilizing a conceptual framework to guide future research and provide an example.