番茄社区

Financial burdens can negatively affect the quality of life for individuals with ovarian cancer, according to the results of a qualitative study presented at the recent Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) annual meeting.

In this 番茄社区 video, investigator Naomi Adjei, MD, MPH, MSEd, a resident physician in obstetrics and gynecology at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, discusses what strategies can be implemented to support these patients, and the importance of qualitative studies.

Following is a transcript of her remarks:

We did a longitudinal qualitative study to learn about how patients with ovarian cancer are able to deal with the high cost of cancer care. And there were 40 women in the study. The average age was 59 years, and the median time from diagnoses was 44 months.

What was very interesting to me was that not only were the costs of cancer care really high, and even though all the patients in this group had health insurance and were getting care at a comprehensive cancer center, they had to resort to some unsustainable avenues to be able to continue to live after getting their treatment. So for example, they were dependent on families, relatives, communities to raise money to help them pay for housing costs, for example. Some of them were deferring expenses from groceries. So one patient mentioned stretching even chicken just so she could make ends meet.

The thing that was really sad for me is that a lot of our ovarian cancer patients tend to be older. And so to hear them say that they are withdrawing money from their retirement funds, for example, makes me worry about the quality of end-of-life care for them.

And what all of this means to me is that we have to start thinking about sustainable social and financial protections to help these patients beyond just health insurance. We have to think about: How do we help them maintain employment during the time when they're getting their treatment and they're not strong enough to go to work, because once they lose their employment, they also lose their insurance assets, they lose their homes, and they lose other things that are important for quality of life. And so we really need to start thinking outside of the box and think about how can we truly support our patients so that they are actually enjoying the extension of their lives so once they survive cancer, they can continue to live a quality life.

Qualitative studies are important. They allow us to talk to the patients directly, and we're able to highlight the patients' stories. Because unfortunately not all the patients can come here and tell us one-on-one how hard it's been to have cancer. And we can all imagine how hard it is. But to hear the stories from the patients themselves is very powerful. And I am a strong advocate or believer of the fact that patient stories can motivate us to do better science, can motivate us to be better clinicians, better providers.

And so I'm hoping that with these opportunities being created for qualitative studies to be shared at conferences like this, more and more people will start to tap into that.

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