Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Item

Professional-patient discrepancies in assessing lung cancer radiotherapy symptoms: an international multicentre study

Aguado-Barrera, M. E.
Lopez-Pleguezuelos, C.
Gómez-Caamaño, A.
Calvo-Crespo, P.
Taboada-Valladares, B.
Azria, D.
Boisselier, P.
Briers, E.
Chan, C.
Chang-Claude, J.
... show 10 more
Citations
Google Scholar:
Altmetric:
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We investigate discrepancies in the assessment of treatment-related symptoms in lung cancer between healthcare professionals and patients, and factors contributing to these discrepancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from 515 participants in the REQUITE study were analysed. Five symptoms (cough, dyspnoea, bronchopulmonary haemorrhage, chest wall pain, dysphagia) were evaluated both before and after radiotherapy. Agreement between healthcare professionals and people with lung cancer was quantified using Gwet's-AC(2) coefficient. The influence of clinical variables, comorbidities, and quality-of-life outcomes on agreement was examined through stratified analyses. RESULTS: We found varying levels of agreement between healthcare professionals and people with lung cancer. Bronchopulmonary haemorrhage and dysphagia exhibited very good agreement (meanAC(2) > 0.81), while cough and chest wall pain showed substantial agreement (meanAC(2) = 0.64 and 0.76, respectively). Dyspnoea had the lowest agreement (meanAC(2) = 0.59), with prior chemotherapy significantly reducing agreement levels. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and early cancer stages also contributed to discrepancies in dyspnoea assessments. Regarding quality-of-life, the most relevant factor was fatigue, which reduced agreement in the assessment of dyspnoea (AC(2) = 0.55 vs 0.70), dysphagia (AC(2) = 0.48 vs 0.69), cough (AC(2) = 0.58 vs 0.82), and chest wall pain (AC(2) = 0.77 vs 0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate strong alignment between healthcare professionals' and people with lung cancer evaluations of observable treatment-related symptoms, but less consistency for subjective symptoms such as dyspnoea. Factors such as prior chemotherapy, COPD, and cancer stage should be considered when interpreting symptom assessments. Furthermore, our study underscores the importance of integrating quality-of-life considerations, particularly fatigue, into symptom evaluations to mitigate potential biases in symptom perception.
Affiliation
Grupo Genética en Cáncer y Enfermedades Raras, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Fundación Pública Galega de Medicina Xenómica, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Grupo Genética en Cáncer y Enfermedades Raras, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Department of Radiation Oncology, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Servizo Galego de Saúde (SERGAS), Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Fédération Universitaire d'oncologie radiothérapie d'Occitanie Méditerranée, ICM, INSERM U1194 IRCM, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France. Patient Advocat, Hasselt, Belgium. Radiotherapy Related Research, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, United Kingdom; Division of Cancer Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Cancer Epidemiology Group, University Cancer Center Hamburg, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Translational Radiobiology Group, Division of Cancer Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Christie Hospital, Manchester, United Kingdom. Radiation Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy. Hereditary Cancer Genetics Group, Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Barcelona, Spain. Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany. Leicester Cancer Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom. Radiation Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Fédération Universitaire d'oncologie radiothérapie d'Occitanie Méditerranée, ICG, CHU Caremeau, Nimes, France. Radiation Oncology, Ghent University Hospital and Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Radiation Oncology Department, Vall d'Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Barcelona, Spain; Radiation Oncology Department, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain. Radiation Oncology Department, Vall d'Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Barcelona, Spain. Unit of Data Science, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy. Department of Radiation Oncology, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, USA. Department of Radiation Oncology, Universitätsmedizin Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany. Independent Cancer Patients' Voice, United Kingdom. Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom. Ghent University, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. Trustee Pelvic Radiation Disease Association, NCRI CTRad Consumer, United Kingdom. Maastricht University Medical Center, Department of Radiation Oncology (Maastro clinic), GROW School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht, the Netherlands. Grupo Genética en Cáncer y Enfermedades Raras, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Fundación Pública Galega de Medicina Xenómica, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Biomedical Network on Rare Diseases (CIBERER), Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: ana.vega@usc.es.
Description
Date
2025
Publisher
Keywords
Type
Article
Citation
Aguado-Barrera ME, Lopez-Pleguezuelos C, Gómez-Caamaño A, Calvo-Crespo P, Taboada-Valladares B, Azria D, et al. Professional-patient discrepancies in assessing lung cancer radiotherapy symptoms: An international multicentre study. Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands). 2025 Jan;199:108072. PubMed PMID: 39740425. Epub 2025/01/01. eng.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Embedded videos