Anticancer Treatment Goals and Prognostic Misperceptions among Advanced Cancer Outpatients

Carlos Eduardo Paiva, Ana Clara Teixeira, Bruna Minto Lourenço, Daniel D’Almeida Preto, Talita Caroline de Oliveira Valentino, Mirella Mingardi and Bianca Sakamoto Ribeiro Paiva
Additional contact information
Carlos Eduardo Paiva: Palliative Care and Quality of Life Research Group, Post-Graduate Program, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos 14784-400, SP, Brazil
Ana Clara Teixeira: Palliative Care and Quality of Life Research Group, Post-Graduate Program, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos 14784-400, SP, Brazil
Bruna Minto Lourenço: Palliative Care and Quality of Life Research Group, Post-Graduate Program, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos 14784-400, SP, Brazil
Daniel D’Almeida Preto: Palliative Care and Quality of Life Research Group, Post-Graduate Program, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos 14784-400, SP, Brazil
Talita Caroline de Oliveira Valentino: Palliative Care and Quality of Life Research Group, Post-Graduate Program, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos 14784-400, SP, Brazil
Mirella Mingardi: Palliative Care and Quality of Life Research Group, Post-Graduate Program, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos 14784-400, SP, Brazil
Bianca Sakamoto Ribeiro Paiva: Palliative Care and Quality of Life Research Group, Post-Graduate Program, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos 14784-400, SP, Brazil

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-10

Abstract: (1) Background: In the context of cancer incurability, the communication processes involving clinicians and patients with cancer are frequently complex. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional study that investigated outpatients with advanced cancers and their oncologists. Both were interviewed immediately after a medical appointment in which there was disease progression and/or clinical deterioration, and were asked about the patient’s chance of curability and the goals of the prescribed cancer treatment. The patients were asked whether they would like to receive information about prognosis and how they would like to receive it. The analyses of agreement on perceptions were performed using the Kappa’s test. (3) Results: the sample consisted of 90 patients and 28 oncologists. Seventy-eight (87.6%) patients answered that they wanted their oncologist to inform them about their prognosis; only 35.2% ( n = 31) of them said they received such information at their present appointment. Regarding how they would prefer prognostic disclosure, 61.8% ( n = 55) mentioned that the oncologist should consider ways to keep the patient’s hope up; 73% ( n = 65) of the patients reported odds >50% of cure. The agreement between oncologists’ and their patients’ perceptions regarding the treatment goals and curability was slight (k = 0.024 and k = 0.017, respectively). (4) Conclusions: The perceptions of patients and their oncologists regarding the goals of treatment and their chances of cure were in disagreement. New approaches are needed to improve the communication process between oncologists and patients with advanced cancer.

Keywords: cancer; prognostic markers; palliative care; perception of curability; communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/6272/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/6272/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:10:p:6272-:d:820960

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().