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Key Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study in Belgium and Italy
Background: The lung cancer (LC) treatment landscape has drastically expanded with the arrival of immunotherapy and targeted therapy. This new variety of treatment options, each with its own characteristics, raises uncertainty regarding the key aspects affecting patients’ health-related quality of l...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8494945/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34630085 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.710518 |
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author | Janssens, Rosanne Arnou, Reinhard Schoefs, Elise Petrocchi, Serena Cincidda, Clizia Ongaro, Giulia Oliveri, Serena Smith, Meredith Y. Louis, Evelyne Vandevelde, Marie Nackaerts, Kristiaan Pravettoni, Gabriella Huys, Isabelle |
author_facet | Janssens, Rosanne Arnou, Reinhard Schoefs, Elise Petrocchi, Serena Cincidda, Clizia Ongaro, Giulia Oliveri, Serena Smith, Meredith Y. Louis, Evelyne Vandevelde, Marie Nackaerts, Kristiaan Pravettoni, Gabriella Huys, Isabelle |
author_sort | Janssens, Rosanne |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: The lung cancer (LC) treatment landscape has drastically expanded with the arrival of immunotherapy and targeted therapy. This new variety of treatment options, each with its own characteristics, raises uncertainty regarding the key aspects affecting patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQL). The present qualitative study aimed to investigate how LC patients perceive their HRQL and the factors that they consider to be most influential in determining their HRQL. Methods: This qualitative research incorporates four focus group discussions, with six LC patients in each group. In total, 24 stage III and IV LC patients were included in the discussions, with Italian (n = 12) and Belgian (n = 12) patients, age range: 42–78, median age = 62 (IQR = 9.3 years), SD = 8.5; 62% men. Using thematic analysis, transcripts and notes from the FGDs were analyzed using NVivo software (edition 12). Results: Three main themes capturing determinants of HRQL were identified. First, patients agreed on the importance of physical aspects (symptoms and side-effects) in determining their HRQL. In particular, skin conditions, nausea, fatigue, risk of infections, sensory abnormalities, pain, and changes in physical appearance were highlighted. Second, patients worried about psychological aspects, negatively impacting their wellbeing such as uncertainties regarding their future health state, and a lower degree of autonomy and independence. Third, patients underlined the importance of social aspects, such as communication with healthcare providers and social interaction with friends, family and peers. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that physical, psychological, and social aspects are key factors driving LC patients’ HRQL. Gaining a better understanding of how LC patients perceive their HRQL and how it is affected by their illness and therapy will aid patient-centric decision-making across the drug life cycle, by providing stakeholders (drug developers, regulators, reimbursement bodies, and clinicians) insights about the treatment and disease aspects of importance to LC patients as well as the unmet needs LC patients may have regarding available treatment modalities. Finally, this study underscores a need for individual treatment decision-making that is considerate of uncertainties among LC patients about their future health state, and ways for improving communication between healthcare providers and patients to do so. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8494945 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84949452021-10-08 Key Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study in Belgium and Italy Janssens, Rosanne Arnou, Reinhard Schoefs, Elise Petrocchi, Serena Cincidda, Clizia Ongaro, Giulia Oliveri, Serena Smith, Meredith Y. Louis, Evelyne Vandevelde, Marie Nackaerts, Kristiaan Pravettoni, Gabriella Huys, Isabelle Front Pharmacol Pharmacology Background: The lung cancer (LC) treatment landscape has drastically expanded with the arrival of immunotherapy and targeted therapy. This new variety of treatment options, each with its own characteristics, raises uncertainty regarding the key aspects affecting patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQL). The present qualitative study aimed to investigate how LC patients perceive their HRQL and the factors that they consider to be most influential in determining their HRQL. Methods: This qualitative research incorporates four focus group discussions, with six LC patients in each group. In total, 24 stage III and IV LC patients were included in the discussions, with Italian (n = 12) and Belgian (n = 12) patients, age range: 42–78, median age = 62 (IQR = 9.3 years), SD = 8.5; 62% men. Using thematic analysis, transcripts and notes from the FGDs were analyzed using NVivo software (edition 12). Results: Three main themes capturing determinants of HRQL were identified. First, patients agreed on the importance of physical aspects (symptoms and side-effects) in determining their HRQL. In particular, skin conditions, nausea, fatigue, risk of infections, sensory abnormalities, pain, and changes in physical appearance were highlighted. Second, patients worried about psychological aspects, negatively impacting their wellbeing such as uncertainties regarding their future health state, and a lower degree of autonomy and independence. Third, patients underlined the importance of social aspects, such as communication with healthcare providers and social interaction with friends, family and peers. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that physical, psychological, and social aspects are key factors driving LC patients’ HRQL. Gaining a better understanding of how LC patients perceive their HRQL and how it is affected by their illness and therapy will aid patient-centric decision-making across the drug life cycle, by providing stakeholders (drug developers, regulators, reimbursement bodies, and clinicians) insights about the treatment and disease aspects of importance to LC patients as well as the unmet needs LC patients may have regarding available treatment modalities. Finally, this study underscores a need for individual treatment decision-making that is considerate of uncertainties among LC patients about their future health state, and ways for improving communication between healthcare providers and patients to do so. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8494945/ /pubmed/34630085 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.710518 Text en Copyright © 2021 Janssens, Arnou, Schoefs, Petrocchi, Cincidda, Ongaro, Oliveri, Smith, Louis, Vandevelde, Nackaerts, Pravettoni and Huys. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Pharmacology Janssens, Rosanne Arnou, Reinhard Schoefs, Elise Petrocchi, Serena Cincidda, Clizia Ongaro, Giulia Oliveri, Serena Smith, Meredith Y. Louis, Evelyne Vandevelde, Marie Nackaerts, Kristiaan Pravettoni, Gabriella Huys, Isabelle Key Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study in Belgium and Italy |
title | Key Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study in Belgium and Italy |
title_full | Key Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study in Belgium and Italy |
title_fullStr | Key Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study in Belgium and Italy |
title_full_unstemmed | Key Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study in Belgium and Italy |
title_short | Key Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Advanced Lung Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study in Belgium and Italy |
title_sort | key determinants of health-related quality of life among advanced lung cancer patients: a qualitative study in belgium and italy |
topic | Pharmacology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8494945/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34630085 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.710518 |
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