Early-Stage Lung Cancer Patients’ Perceptions of Presurgical Discussions.
MDM Policy Pract 2022;
7:23814683221085570. [PMID:
35341091 PMCID:
PMC8941700 DOI:
10.1177/23814683221085570]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2021] [Accepted: 01/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
Patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have high
survival rates, but patients often say they did not anticipate the effect of
the surgery on their postsurgical quality of life (QoL). This study adds to
the literature regarding patient and surgeon interactions and highlights the
areas where the current approach is not providing good communication.
Design
Since its start in 2016, the Initiative for Early Lung Cancer Research on
Treatment (IELCART), a prospective cohort study, has enrolled 543 patients
who underwent surgery for stage I NSCLC within the Mount Sinai Health
System. Presurgical patient and surgeon surveys were available for 314
patients, postsurgical surveys for 420, and both pre- and postsurgical
surveys for 285.
Results
Of patients with presurgical surveys, 31.2% said that their surgeon
recommended multiple types of treatment. Of patients with postsurgical
surveys, 85.0% felt very well prepared and 11.4% moderately well prepared
for their postsurgical recovery. The median Functional Assessment of Cancer
Therapy–Lung Cancer score and social support score of the patients who felt
very well prepared was significantly higher than those moderately or not
well prepared (24.0 v. 22.0, P < 0.001) and (5.0
[interquartile range: 4.7–5.0] v. 5.0 [IQR: 4.2–5.0], p =
0.015).
Conclusions
This study provides insight into the areas where surgeons are communicating
well with their patients as well as the areas where patients still feel
uninformed. Most surgeons feel that they prepare their patients well or very
well for surgical recovery, whereas some patients still feel that their
surgeons did not prepare them well for postsurgical recovery. Surgeons may
want to spend additional time emphasizing postsurgical recovery and QoL with
their patients or provide their patients with additional avenues to get
their questions and concerns addressed.
Highlights
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