Preferences of lung cancer patients for treatment and decision-making

a systematic literature review

authored by

K. Schmidt, K. Damm, A. Prenzler, H. Golpon, T. Welte

Abstract

The consideration of patient preferences in decision-making has become more important, especially for life-threatening diseases such as lung cancer. This paper aims to identify the preferences of lung cancer patients with regard to their treatment and involvement in the decision-making process. We conducted a systematic literature review from 12 electronic databases and included studies published between 2000 and 2012. A total of 20 studies were included in this review. These revealed that lung cancer patients do have preferences that should be considered in treatment decisions; however, these preferences are not homogenous. We found that patients often consider life extension to be more important than the health-related quality of life or undesirable side effects. This preference seems to depend on patient age. Nausea and vomiting are the most important side effects to be avoided; the relevance of other side effects differs highly between subgroups. The majority of lung cancer patients, nevertheless, seem to prefer a passive rather than an active role in decision-making, although the self-reported preferences differed partly from the physicians' perceptions. Overall, we identified an urgent need for larger studies that are suitable for subgroup analyses and incorporate multi-attributive measurement techniques.

Organisation(s)

Center for Health Economics Research Hannover (CHERH)

External Organisation(s)

Hannover Medical School (MHH)
Biomedical Research in Endstage & Obstructive Lung Disease (BREATH)
German Center for Lung Research

Type

Review article

Journal

European Journal of Cancer Care

Volume

25

Pages

580-591

No. of pages

12

ISSN

0961-5423

Publication date

27.06.2016

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Oncology

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12425 (Access: Closed)