Results from a survey of patients with advanced or recurrent NSCL cancer on their attitudes toward medication.
AstraZeneca K.K. (“AstraZeneca,” Head Office: Kita-
This online survey asked 110 patients about their expectations and concerns regarding treatment for advanced or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer treatment. The results revealed that when starting initial medication, patients desire a stable therapy with both high efficacy and tolerability, which can be sustained for an extended period of time.
・ When starting treatment, patients felt considerable anxiety about their medication: 88% regarding the severity of adverse drug reactions, and 86% regarding the possibility that efficacy may not be sustained for an extended period of time.
・ Many of the respondents also felt anxiety regarding the potential impact on their daily life, with 81% of the respondents indicating that they felt anxious about the number of visits to their doctors and/or adverse drug reactions causing trouble to people around them, and 79% about limitations on lifestyle (e.g., ability to do work or housekeeping).
・ While receiving treatment, 95% of the respondents felt relieved when no abnormalities were found in follow up examinations.
・ While receiving treatment, many of the respondents valued being able to live a stable life or spend time as usual.
・ The top two adverse drug reactions that the respondents wanted to avoid were nausea/vomiting (30%) and hair loss (24%).
(Comment from Dr. Kazuhiko Nakagawa (Senior Professor at Department of Medical Oncology, Kinki University Faculty of Medicine), the supervisor of this survey)
“Through this survey, we determined that patients with advanced or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer need efficacious and tolerable therapies that can be sustained for an extended period of time. Patients diagnosed with lung cancer are faced with many sources of anxiety, and strongly desire to keep their way of life unchanged from before they were diagnosed with lung cancer. An initial treatment that is considered a success by patient will provide a positive experience that supports them later on. In addition, selecting a therapy together with the patient will increase trust in their physician, and as a result also improve treatment quality.”
[Overview of the survey results]
1. What did the patients most expect from medication?
What patients most expected from medication was the extended sustainability of drug efficacy (86%). This percentage was much higher than the percentage of the respondents who most expected lower burden of side effects (11%).
2. What anxiety did the patients feel about their initial medication?
Most of the patients felt anxiety about side effects and the duration of efficacy. Out of the respondents, 88% felt anxiety about the severity of adverse drug reactions, and 86% about the possibility that efficacy might not be sustained for an extended period of time. These percentages were higher than the percentage of those who felt anxiety about the cost of treatment (56%) and the percentage of those who felt anxiety about the number of visits to their doctors, time, etc. (54%).
3. What anxiety did the patients feel about changes to their lifestyles when starting treatment?
Anxiety that the respondents felt about the potential impact of treatment on their everyday life included the following: anxiety about causing other people trouble, due to the number of visits to their doctor or adverse drug reactions, etc. (81%); anxiety about limitations on their lifestyle, such as work or housekeeping (79%); anxiety about being under stress as a result of constantly being made aware of their illness (73%); and anxiety about the cost of treatment putting pressure on their daily lives (64%).
4. What brought comfort and relief to the patients?
The top three situations in which the patients felt relief while receiving treatment, all of which were related to treatment, were as follows:
No. 1, when no abnormalities were found in follow up examinations (95%):
No. 2, when the drug’s efficacy could be felt or noticed (77%):
No. 3, when no adverse drug reactions were experienced (70%).
5. What adverse drug reactions did the patients want to avoid?
The top two adverse drug reactions that the patients wanted to avoid were nausea/vomiting (30%) and hair loss (24%).
6. What did the patients value while receiving treatment?
The open-response question “What do you value in your day-to-day life while receiving treatment?” received responses which fall roughly into two categories: 1) responses related to lifestyle and 2) responses related to emotions. In terms of lifestyle, 34 respondents valued living a stable life and 24 valued maintaining their health through diet or exercise. In terms of emotions, 13 respondents valued keeping a positive frame of mind/living a cheerful life, and 7 valued eliminating stress or relaxing. These results indicate that the patients placed high value on maintaining a positive attitue and on continuing their lifestyle from before they developed cancer.
[Survey overview]
Title: A survey of patients with advanced or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer on their attitudes toward medication
Survey subjects: Patients diagnosed with advanced or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer (stage 3b, stage 4) who will soon begin or have begun therapy for non-small cell lung cancer within the past year Survey period: From June 18, 2018 to June 26, 2018 Survey methods: Participants were recruited via ONCOLO and they completed an online questionnaire survey Number of valid responses: 110 Supervisor: Dr. Kazuhiko Nakagawa (Senior Professor at Department of Medical Oncology, Kinki University Faculty of Medicine) Sponsor: AstraZeneca K.K. Survey conducted by: CROèe Inc. (operator of ONCOLO)
Please
This article is based on submitted report in 2018 to Astrazeneca K.K by CROee Inc. All right and contents are reserved. Pre-hand permission was taken from the sponsor before publishing the article.
