Practices around periodic cancer screening by physicians in primary care specialties.

Questionnaires and information packets were distributed to 121 physicians in primary care specialties in central Connecticut to ascertain how periodic cancer screening is performed and monitored. Results of a baseline survey of 52 respondents (51% of active practitioners) are presented here. Only one quarter of respondents noted some formal mechanism in place within their practice to encourage periodic screening of patients.

Attitudes and practices regarding adjuvant chemotherapy in node-negative breast cancer.

Eight months after an NCI "Clinical Alert" was issued a survey was conducted to examine attitudes and practices regarding the use of adjuvant chemotherapy for node-negative breast cancer among Connecticut physicians most experienced in the care of such patients. Respondents (N = 66) indicated that the communication prompted change in case management practices; 65% reported increased use of adjuvant chemotherapy in treatment of women with node-negative disease. Seventy-seven percent of physicians who responded now consider adjuvant chemotherapy for node-negative patients to be the standard of care in their community.