CN26 - Do patients with advanced lung cancer have more palliative care needs than patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)?

Background

Advanced Lung Cancer (LC) and severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), decisively affect patients' lives on multiples levels. This study aimed to compare the palliative care needs of patients with advanced LC and severe COPD and evaluate factors affecting them.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was performed in two public hospitals in Athens (September 2017 - March 2019). A convenient sample of 172 patients (85 LC / 87 COPD) who consented to participate, were interviewed (response rate 96%). A clinical-demographic questionnaire and the following 4 evaluating scales were used: a) PNPC-sv (0-64), problems and needs for palliative care, b) SF-12 (0-100%) health survey (physical and mental), c) PHQ-15 (0-30) severity of somatic symptoms d) PPS-v2 (0-100%) functional status. Data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 program with the significance level set at 0.05 (p=0.05).

Results

Patients with COPD had significantly worse functional status (PPS score: 60% vs 80%) (p<0.001), more discomfort from physical symptoms (11.51% vs 8.51%) (p=0.002), more problems and greater need for care with PNPC compared to patients with LC (p<0.05). The health survey (physical and mental) was assessed as moderate (35.13% vs 37.42% and 44.18% vs 47.36%) without a statistically significant difference. Regression analysis in patients with LC revealed that women reported a significantly greater need for care than men (p=0.028). In COPD patients, nebulizer use and the number of re-admissions were associated with greater need for care (p<0.05). Those with more re-admissions reported worse mental health (p=0.007), and women had worse mental health than men (p=0.009).

Conclusions

Study findings support that hospitalized patients with advanced LC had less palliative care needs than those with severe COPD.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.