Table 2.
Patient perception of tamoxifen
| Symptom duration, months | 22.4 (6–24) |
| Time to treatment of those patients operated in the adherence assessment period, months |
5.7 (0.1–10.8) |
| Questionnaire | |
| What is the most important medical problem for women in this area? (n = 22) | |
| “No idea” | 14 (64) |
| Back pain | 3 (14) |
| Cervical cancer | 3 (14) |
| Mastitis | 1 (4) |
| Gastritis | 1 (4) |
| What is cancer? (n = 22) | |
| “No idea” | 11 (50) |
| Disease | 5 (23) |
| Deadly disease | 6 (27) |
| Do you have cancer? (n = 20) | |
| No | 10 (50) |
| Yes | 10 (50) |
| Is tamoxifen necessary? (n = 19) | |
| No | 0 (0) |
| Yes | 19 (100) |
| Would you pay for tamoxifen? (n = 14) | |
| No | 11 (79) |
| Yes | 3 (21) |
| Wherefore do you take tamoxifen? (n = 17) | |
| “No idea” | 6 (35) |
| Prevents cancer | 9 (53) |
| Is helpful | 1 (6) |
| Minders the power of cancer | 1 (6) |
| Why did you stop taking tamoxifen? (n = 9) | |
| Terminal illness | 2 (22) |
| Difficult circumstances | 2 (22) |
| Lack of money | 2 (22) |
| Side effects of therapy | 2 (22) |
| Unknown | 1 (11) |
| Describe complaints on your health (n = 20; more than one answer possible) | |
| None | 14 (41) |
| Nausea | 3 (9) |
| Hot flushes | 3 (9) |
| Sweating | 6 (18) |
| Vaginal discharge | 1 (3) |
| Diarrhea | 1 (3) |
| Changes in mood | 2 (5) |
| Other | 4 (12) |
| Describe discomforts with the taking of tamoxifen (n = 21; more than one answer possible) | |
| “No problems” | 14 (59) |
| Difficult to swallow | 7 (29) |
| Interrupts daily work | 2 (8) |
| Reminds of the disease | 1 (4) |
Data are presented as the mean (IQR) or number of answering patients (%). n = 22 of 26 who initiated tamoxifen; families of 3 deceased patients were not found, and 1 husband was unable to answer the questionnaire