ecancermedicalscience

Clinical Study

Living better or living longer? Perceptions of patients and health care professionals in oncology

22 Sep 2015
Diego de Araujo Toloi, Gabriela Critchi, Andrea Mangabeira, Felipe Matsushita, Rachel P Riechelmann, Paulo M Hoff, Everardo D Saad

Background: Cancer can influence the views of patients on treatment goals and make them different from those of health care professionals (HCPs). It is crucial to understand patient expectations regarding cancer treatment.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey of patients with cancer and HCPs to evaluate their perceptions about treatment priorities and to analyse variables that might influence their opinions. To identify treatment choices, we interviewed all participants using a structured questionnaire with fictitious case vignettes.

Results: We enrolled a total of 230 participants, including 144 patients and 86 HCPs (35 nurses, 21 physicians, 30 others). Treatment priority between survival time (28.5% for patients vs. 8.1% for HCP) and quality of life (45.8% vs. 87.2%) differed significantly, with the remaining participants stating they were uncertain or unwilling to respond, or providing invalid responses (P < 0.01). In logistic regression, prioritising survival time was more frequent in patients, adjusting for age and gender (odds ratio (OR) = 3.95; P < 0.01). The view that the physician alone should be responsible for treatment choices was more frequent among patients than HCPs (18.8 vs. 5.8%; P = 0.01).

Conclusions: In Brazil, our results suggest that survival time is more important for patients with cancer than for HCPs, whereas quality of life is more important for HCPs than for patients with cancer, who place great emphasis on physicians as decision-makers. Given that Brazilian patients often rely on physicians for decisions, the potential impact of different priorities between survival time and quality of life when patients and HCPs are compared is unknown.

Related Articles

Goutam Santosh Panda, Vanita Noronha, Vijay Patil, Amit Joshi, Nandini Menon, Rajiv Kumar, Trupti Pai, Omshree Shetty, Amit Janu, Nivedita Chakrabarty, Nilendu Purandare, Sayak Dey, Kumar Prabhash
Olaniyi A Olatunde, Modupeola O Samaila, Mohammed I Imam, Kasiemobi E Uchime, Suleiman E Dauda
Vivian Onyinyechukwu Magboh, Ogheneochuko Andrew Saba, Rene Krause, Patrice Forget
Liana Hambardzumyan, Henrik Grigoryan, Maria Badikyan, Heghine Khachatryan, Nelly Sargsyan, Arliette Sulikhanyan, Gevorg Tamamyan, Justin Stebbing