Reasons for accepting or declining randomisation
’d
INVASIVE CANCER
Interviews took place a median of 22 days after randomisation. During the interview, the women were given the opportunity to elaborate further on the reasons they had given on the CTQ for accepting or declining randomisation. The three most frequent reasons for accepting randomisation were the same for this subset of 89 women as the 175 who completed a CTQ. Anticipating future benefit for others was selected by 19/89 (21%) as the most important factor, e.g. “I’ve got 9 grandchildren and 6 of them are girls. What if same thing happens when they grow up and the only option was the operation? I hope that anything I do helps, not just for my family, but all women.” (P24). Helping with the doctor’s research was also selected by 19/89 (21%), e.g. “Well it’s like anything else, if we don’t have individuals giving their time and biopsy samples, we’ll never find out if these dormant cells will turn into invasive cancer. It will help future generations, I think this is what you need. I think there should be more research in general and more money should be spent on research. My husband was worried that I’d get monitoring, but I was happy to join either part of the trial.” (P102). And for another 19/89 (21%), the most important reason for accepting randomisation was the belief that the trial offered the best treatment e.g. “I thought getting yearly rather than 3 yearly mammograms was a good idea. Getting checked more often was the main reason.” (P48).The four women who withdrew from their treatment allocation after randomisation had all been allocated to standard treatment but did not want surgery. For example, one woman talked about how surgery did not fit in with her busy lifestyle as a self-employed fitness instructor and that she felt it was currently unnecessary. Nearly all the decliners interviewed (7/8) were sure they wanted surgery, generally for peace of mind or because of family considerations, with just one woman declining randomisation because she did not want surgery.