BACKGROUND: Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) in personalized lung cancer care aim to facilitate a targeted therapeutic management approach. This study explores the implementation of PROs as an intervention component within a precision medicine program, with a focus on identifying facilitating factors and barriers from the perspectives of health care providers (HCPs) and patients with stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODOLOGY: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with HCPs and NSCLC patients over two rounds in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The framework of Grol and Wensing was employed, which divides healthcare into six dimensions. RESULTS: The structured documentation of symptoms and quality of life constitutes a benefit in that it enables intervention by the treating physician. From the perspective of HCPs, incorporating PROs into daily clinical practice was associated with considerable organizational challenges and the need for logins into an additional system to access the results. This required a substantial investment of time and personnel, which resulted in a lack of acceptance. The predominant motivation of patients who participated in the PRO questionnaires was a desire to contribute to scientific research. In general, the regular administration of the questionnaire has proven unfeasible for the NSCLC cohort, given the high disease burden often experienced in stage IV. CONCLUSIONS: Despite implementation challenges, PROs can improve symptom monitoring, communication, and patient-centered care in advanced NSCLC when key barriers are addressed.
Mildenberger et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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