Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Reliability of self-reported diagnostic radiation history in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers

  • CANCER
  • Published:
European Journal of Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We assessed reliability of self-reported diagnostic radiation history in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers with and without breast cancer. Within the frame-work of the HEBON study, 401 BRCA1/2 mutation carriers completed a baseline (1999–2004) and a follow-up questionnaire (2006–2007). Test–retest reliability of self-reported exposure to chest X-rays, fluoroscopies and mammograms was assessed for the entire study population and by case status. Overall proportion agreement on reporting ever/never exposure was good (> 75%), while the corresponding kappa coefficients were between 0.40 and 0.75, indicating at least moderate reliability beyond chance. Reliability of number of exposures was also good (> 75%). Proportion agreement on reporting age at first mammogram was low (40%) for exact consistency and moderate (60%) for consistency ± 1 year. Reliability of age at first mammogram was higher for cases than for unaffected carriers (P < 0.001) but this difference disappeared when excluding diagnostic mammograms (P = 0.60). In unaffected carriers proportion agreement on age at last mammogram was 50%. In general, the direction of disagreement on all items was equally distributed. More consistent reporting was mainly determined by a younger age at questionnaire completion. In conclusion, inconsistent self-report of diagnostic radiation by BRCA1/2 mutation carriers was mainly non-differential by disease status.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

BPM:

Bilateral prophylactic mastectomy

BPO:

Bilateral prophylactic (salpingo-) oophorectomy

Carriers:

BRCA1/2 mutation carriers

CI:

Confidence interval

HEBON:

Hereditary Breast and Ovarian cancer study the Netherlands

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

NCR:

Netherlands Cancer Registry

OR:

Odds ratio

PALGA:

Netherlands Pathology Database

TB:

Tuberculosis

References

  1. Ronckers CM, Erdmann CA, Land CE. Radiation and breast cancer: a review of current evidence. Breast Cancer Res. 2005;7(1):21–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Hall EJ, Brenner DJ. Cancer risks from diagnostic radiology. Br J Radiol. 2008;81(965):362–78.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Boulton SJ. Cellular functions of the BRCA tumour-suppressor proteins. Biochem Soc Trans. 2006;34(Pt 5):633–45.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Andrieu N, Easton DF, Chang-Claude J, Rookus MA, Brohet R, Cardis E, et al. Effect of chest X-rays on the risk of breast cancer among BRCA1/2 mutation carriers in the international BRCA1/2 carrier cohort study: a report from the EMBRACE, GENEPSO, GEO-HEBON, and IBCCS Collaborators’ Group. J Clin Oncol. 2006;24(21):3361–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Gronwald J, Pijpe A, Byrski T, Huzarski T, Stawicka M, Cybulski C, et al. Early radiation exposures and BRCA1-associated breast cancer in young women from Poland. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2008;112(3):581–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Goldfrank D, Chuai S, Bernstein JL, Ramon YC, Lee JB, Alonso MC, et al. Effect of mammography on breast cancer risk in women with mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006;15(11):2311–3.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Narod SA, Lubinski J, Ghadirian P, Lynch HT, Moller P, Foulkes WD, et al. Screening mammography and risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers: a case–control study. Lancet Oncol. 2006;7(5):402–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. National Breast Cancer Organisation the Netherlands. Guideline Breastcancer. The Netherlands: Utrecht; 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Paskett ED, Tatum CM, Mack DW, Hoen H, Case LD, Velez R. Validation of self-reported breast and cervical cancer screening tests among low-income minority women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1996;5(9):721–6.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Bancej CM, Maxwell CJ, Snider J. Inconsistent self-reported mammography history: findings from the National Population Health Survey longitudinal cohort. BMC Health Serv Res. 2004;4(1):32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Rauscher GH, O’Malley MS, Earp JA. How consistently do women report lifetime mammograms at successive interviews? Am J Prev Med. 2002;22(1):8–14.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Rivera S, Vernon SW, Tiro JA, Coan S, Del Junco D, Chan W, et al. Test–retest reliability of self-reported mammography in women veterans. Prev Med. 2006;42(4):320–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Barratt A, Cockburn J, Smith D, Redman S. Reliability and validity of women’s recall of mammographic screening. Aust N Z J Public Health. 2000;24(1):79–81.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Brownson RC, Jackson-Thompson J, Wilkerson JC, Kiani F. Reliability of information on chronic disease risk factors collected in the Missouri Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Epidemiology. 1994;5(5):545–9.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Stein AD, Lederman RI, Shea S. Reproducibility of the women’s module of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System questionnaire. Ann Epidemiol. 1996;6(1):47–52.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Vacek PM, Mickey RM, Worden JK. Reliability of self-reported breast screening information in a survey of lower income women. Prev Med. 1997;26(3):287–91.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Pogoda JM, Preston-Martin S. Radiation exposure from diagnostic imaging: agreement between self-report and medical records. Health Phys. 2002;83(6):907–17.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Berrington de Gonzalez A, Ekbom A, Glass AG, Galanti MR, Grimelius L, Allison MJ, et al. Comparison of documented and recalled histories of exposure to diagnostic X-rays in case-control studies of thyroid cancer. Am J Epidemiol. 2003;157(7):652–63.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Howard M, Agarwal G, Lytwyn A. Accuracy of self-reports of Pap and mammography screening compared to medical record: a meta-analysis. Cancer Causes Control. 2009;20(1):1–13.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Norman SA, Localio AR, Zhou L, Bernstein L, Coates RJ, Flagg EW, et al. Validation of self-reported screening mammography histories among women with and without breast cancer. Am J Epidemiol. 2003;158(3):264–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Pijpe A, Manders P, Brohet RM, Collee JM, Verhoef S, Vasen HF, et al. Physical activity and the risk of breast cancer in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2009.

  22. Casparie M, Tiebosch AT, Burger G, Blauwgeers H, van de Pol A, van Krieken JH, et al. Pathology databanking and biobanking in The Netherlands, a central role for PALGA, the nationwide histopathology and cytopathology data network and archive. Cell Oncol. 2007;29(1):19–24.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Fleiss JL. Statistical methods for rates and proportions. 2nd ed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons; 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Sickenga FN. Short history of the tuberculosis suppression in the Netherlands 1900–1960 (Korte geschiedenis van de tuberculosebestrijding in Nederlands 1900–1960). The Hague: KNCV Tuberculosisfoundation; 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Maclure M, Willett WC. Misinterpretation and misuse of the kappa statistic. Am J Epidemiol. 1987;126(2):161–9.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Dutch Cancer Society (grants NKI1998-1854, NKI2004-3088, NKI 2007-3756).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Anouk Pijpe, Peggy Manders, Renée L. Mulder, Flora E. van Leeuwen & Matti A. Rookus

  2. Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Peggy Manders

  3. Department of Pediatric Oncology, Emma Children’s Hospital/Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Renée L. Mulder

Authors
  1. Anouk Pijpe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peggy Manders
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Renée L. Mulder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Flora E. van Leeuwen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Matti A. Rookus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Consortia

HEBON

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matti A. Rookus.

Appendix

Appendix

The Netherlands Collaborative Group on Hereditary Breast Cancer (HEBON): Coordinating center: Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam: Senno Verhoef, Anouk Pijpe, Richard Brohet, Frans Hogervorst, Laura van ‘t Veer, Flora van Leeuwen, Matti Rookus; Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam: Margriet Colle ’e, Ans van den Ouweland, Mieke Kriege, Mieke Schutte, Maartje Hooning, Caroline Seynaeve; Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden: Christi van Asperen, Juul Wijnen, Peter Devilee; Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen: Nicoline Hoogerbrugge, Marjolijn Ligtenberg; University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht: Margreet Ausems, Rob van der Luijt; Amsterdam Medical Center: Cora Aalfs, Theo van Os; VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam: Hanne Meijers-Heijboer, Hans Gille; University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht: Encarna Gomez-Garcia, Rien Blok; University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen: Jan Oosterwijk, Annemiek van der Hout; Netherlands Foundation for Detection of Hereditary Tumours, Leiden: Hans Vasen, Inge van Leeuwen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pijpe, A., Manders, P., Mulder, R.L. et al. Reliability of self-reported diagnostic radiation history in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. Eur J Epidemiol 25, 103–113 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-009-9416-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-009-9416-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation