Study sample

Participants for this study were 9 male and 7 female doctors, with specialisation in clinical oncology, radiation oncology, and gynaecological oncology. All with experience in prescribing HT, and with a wide breath of years in BC practice: For women, the median number of practising years was 16.4 (range: 5–40); and for men 21.3 (range: 5–54). This reflects the late feminisation of the oncology profession in the last 40 years.

Regarding the health service provider, participants worked at different settings (clinics, hospitals, and institutes) corresponding to the 3 health subsystems. For this study, the identification given to each of the 3 subsystems has followed, in the case of private/social security, the main type of population that the service assisted. Finally, it is also common for doctors in Argentina to work at different institutions, and within this sample, a few oncologists worked simultaneously in two different subsystems (one worked in the private and public sector, and three did so at the social security and the public sector). In this sense, the questions were focused on their perceptions and working experience of the specific setting where the interview took place.

After preliminary analysis of the data it was considered that sufficient information power regarding relevant patterns of prescribing practices was obtained before completing the 16 interviews. Characteristics of the sample are provided in Table ​Table11.