Communication and understanding of prognosis among stage IV lung and GI cancer patients

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 9024-9024
Author(s):  
L. Lehmann ◽  
S. Shaykevich ◽  
J. C. Weeks

9024 Background: Patients' understanding of prognosis is essential to informed decision making about treatment options. There is little data on what prognostic information oncologists communicate to patients and what patients actually understand about their prognosis. Methods: We audio taped consultations between 90 newly diagnosed stage IV non small cell lung cancer patients and stage IV GI cancer patients and medical oncologists at academic teaching hospitals. Interactions were audio taped until patients arrived at a treatment decision. Audiotapes were digitized, coded and analyzed using the RIAS system. All conversation relating to prognosis was blocked, coded and analyzed. After meeting with an oncologist patients were surveyed about their understanding of prognosis and desire for information about life expectancy. Results: 276 patients were contacted of whom 190 consented to participate. 87 patients were ineligible, 13 patients withdrew from the study, and complete data were obtained on 90 patients. The mean age of participants was 62 years (±11), 65% were women. Analysis of the audiotapes revealed that in 78% of cases oncologists told patients that their cancer was not curable. When patients were surveyed, however, only 32% of those who were told that their cancer was not curable actually understood that there was no cure for their cancer (CI 0.19–0.45). Patients’ age, gender, education, and marital status were not associated with an understanding of prognosis. Patient factors associated with understanding of prognosis included a desire for good and bad medical information (CI 0.75–0.99; p<0.0001), an interest in knowing the likelihood that treatment would cure their disease (CI 0.54–0.94; p<0.01), and a belief that information about life expectancy would influence their medical decisions (CI 0.56–0.94; p<0.01). Conclusion: In a majority of cases oncologists actually told patients that their cancer is not curable. Most patients, however, did not understand what was communicated. Patients’ understanding of prognosis is determined not only by what oncologists communicate, but also by patients’ desire for prognostic information. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 734-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baoling Guo ◽  
Qiuxiang Zheng

Aim and Objective: Lung cancer is a highly heterogeneous cancer, due to the significant differences in molecular levels, resulting in different clinical manifestations of lung cancer patients there is a big difference. Including disease characterization, drug response, the risk of recurrence, survival, etc. Method: Clinical patients with lung cancer do not have yet particularly effective treatment options, while patients with lung cancer resistance not only delayed the treatment cycle but also caused strong side effects. Therefore, if we can sum up the abnormalities of functional level from the molecular level, we can scientifically and effectively evaluate the patients' sensitivity to treatment and make the personalized treatment strategies to avoid the side effects caused by over-treatment and improve the prognosis. Result & Conclusion: According to the different sensitivities of lung cancer patients to drug response, this study screened out genes that were significantly associated with drug resistance. The bayes model was used to assess patient resistance.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252304
Author(s):  
Dirk Stefani ◽  
Balazs Hegedues ◽  
Stephane Collaud ◽  
Mohamed Zaatar ◽  
Till Ploenes ◽  
...  

Background Torque teno virus (TTV) is a ubiquitous non-pathogenic virus, which is suppressed in immunological healthy individuals but replicates in immune compromised patients. Thus, TTV load is a suitable biomarker for monitoring the immunosuppression also in lung transplant recipients. Since little is known about the changes of TTV load in lung cancer patients, we analyzed TTV plasma DNA levels in lung cancer patients and its perioperative changes after lung cancer surgery. Material and methods Patients with lung cancer and non-malignant nodules as control group were included prospectively. TTV DNA levels were measured by quantiative PCR using DNA isolated from patients plasma and correlated with routine circulating biomarkers and clinicopathological variables. Results 47 patients (early stage lung cancer n = 30, stage IV lung cancer n = 10, non-malignant nodules n = 7) were included. TTV DNA levels were not detected in seven patients (15%). There was no significant difference between the stage IV cases and the preoperative TTV plasma DNA levels in patients with early stage lung cancer or non-malignant nodules (p = 0.627). While gender, tumor stage and tumor histology showed no correlation with TTV load patients below 65 years of age had a significantly lower TTV load then older patients (p = 0.022). Regarding routine blood based biomarkers, LDH activity was significantly higher in patients with stage IV lung cancer (p = 0.043), however, TTV load showed no correlation with LDH activity, albumin, hemoglobin, CRP or WBC. Comparing the preoperative, postoperative and discharge day TTV load, no unequivocal pattern in the kinetics were. Conclusion Our study suggest that lung cancer has no stage dependent impact on TTV plasma DNA levels and confirms that elderly patients have a significantly higher TTV load. Furthermore, we found no uniform perioperative changes during early stage lung cancer resection on plasma TTV DNA levels.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-195
Author(s):  
Fei Fei Guo ◽  
◽  
Shi Jia Cheng ◽  
Yi Ning Liu ◽  
Jiu Wei Cui ◽  
...  

Background An increasing number of studies have shown that iron, one of the indispensable trace elements in the human body, is closely related to the occurrence and development of cancer. However, few studies have clearly demonstrated the role of the iron levels in lung cancer patients, or the potential effects of inflammation on iron levels. Methods The clinical data for lung cancer patients and non-lung cancer participants were retrospectively analyzed. The serum iron and ferritin levels were measured and compared using a rank-sum test. The correlation between the serum iron/ferritin and C-reactive protein (CRP) was analyzed by rank correlation. The cut-off values for continuous variables were obtained by the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) method. An analysis of potential prognostic factors in lung cancer patients was conducted by univariate and multivariate survival analyses. Results The serum iron levels in patients with extensive small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) were lower than those with limited-stage SCLC, and the levels of serum ferritin and CRP in those with extensive SCLC were higher than those with limited-stage SCLC. Similarly, the serum iron levels in patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were lower than those of patients with stage Ⅰ-Ⅲ disease, and the levels of serum ferritin and CRP in those with stage IV NSCLC were higher than those in stages Ⅰ-Ⅲ. The serum iron level was negatively correlated with the level of CRP, while the serum ferritin level was positively correlated with CRP. The stage of lung cancer, but not the serum iron/ ferritin level, was an independent prognostic factor in lung cancer patients. Conclusions The serum iron and ferritin levels are associated with the staging of lung cancer. The later stages of lung cancer are associated with a lower serum iron level, a higher serum ferritin level, and a higher CRP level. Inflammation may play an important role in regulating the serum iron and ferritin levels in lung cancer patients.


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