Patient-reported benefit from proposed interventions to reduce financial hardship during cancer treatment.

Authors

null

Emeline Aviki

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Emeline Aviki , Fumiko Chino , Julia Ramirez , Victoria Susana Blinder , Jennifer Jean Mueller , Mario M. Leitao , Nadeem Abu-Rustum , Francesca Gany

Organizations

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Research Funding

Other Government Agency
National Cancer Institute P30 CA008748, Other Government Agency, New York Community Trust

Background: Awareness of cancer patients’ financial toxicity (FT) has increased substantially over the past decade; however, interventions to minimize financial burden remain underdeveloped and understudied. This survey-based study explores patient beliefs on which potential mitigating strategies could improve their financial hardship during cancer treatment. Methods: Interviewer-administered surveys were conducted with consecutive patients in an outpatient, urban, private academic Gynecologic Cancer clinic waiting room for 2 weeks in August 2019. The survey items included patient demographics, disease characteristics, the Comprehensive Score for Financial Toxicity (COST) tool (validated measure of FT with score 0-44; lower scores indicate worse FT), assessment of cost-coping strategies, and patient-reported anticipated benefit from described potential interventions (items that were feasible and relevant to implement in clinic). Results: Of 101 patients who initiated the survey, 87 (86%) completed it and were included in this analysis. The median age was 66 (range, 32-87). Thirty-eight patients (44%) had ovarian, 29 (33%) uterine, 5 (6%) cervical, and 15 (17%) an “other” gynecologic cancer. The median COST score was 32 (range, 6-44). Twenty-nine patients (33%) had COST scores ≤25 and 16 (18%) had COST scores ≤18. The most frequent cost-coping strategy reported was reducing leisure activities (n = 36, 41%) and using savings to pay for medical bills (n = 34, 39%). Six patients (7%) reported not taking a prescribed medication in the past 12 months due to the inability to pay and 0 reported skipping a recommended imaging study. When it came to interventions patients anticipated would improve their current financial hardships, 34 (39%) indicated access to transportation assistance to and from appointments, 31 (36%) said “knowing up front how much I’m going to have to pay for my healthcare”, 29 (33%) indicated “minimizing wait time associated with appointments, which keeps me away from work”, and 22 (25%) indicated “access to free food during/around appointments and treatments”. Only 26 (30%) noted they were not experiencing financial hardship. Conclusions: For an outpatient population of gynecologic cancer patients, several focused, feasible interventions could be implemented to potentially decrease patient FT. Our study can help health care providers in the design of interventions to create meaningful improvements in patient financial burden. Next steps should assess the impact of targeted interventions on patient outcomes.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Health Services Research and Quality Improvement

Track

Quality Care/Health Services Research

Sub Track

Value/Cost of Care

Citation

J Clin Oncol 38: 2020 (suppl; abstr 7080)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2020.38.15_suppl.7080

Abstract #

7080

Poster Bd #

352

Abstract Disclosures

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