2381P - Perceived unmet needs and challenges faced by patients with advanced bladder cancer (aBC) and their caregivers: Results of a social media listening (SML) study conducted in 5 European countries

Background

aBC has a very poor prognosis and is associated with physical, emotional, and social challenges that patients and caregivers are increasingly expressing online. This observational study aimed to explore and understand challenges that European patients with aBC and their caregivers encounter and share on social media.

Methods

This retrospective, real-world study evaluated written public posts on geolocated social media in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK posted from October 2017 to January 2022. Natural language processing methods were used to filter out irrelevant content and identify posts from patients and caregivers. Unmet needs were identified by qualitative analysis (ie, annotation) and a saturation method.

Results

A total of 1,670 posts from 1,396 users discussing aBC in 91 publicly available online sources were identified (699 posts from 546 patients and 971 posts from 850 caregivers). Half of patients were male (272 [49.8%]) and more caregivers were female (474 [55.8%]); average age was 58.2 and 35.2 years, respectively. Most unmet needs and challenges identified belonged to 2 main categories: transversal, ie, arising throughout the patient's care pathway (307 [28.1%]) and disease specific (295 [27.0%]). Main challenges included disease worsening (141 [12.9%]), psychological impact (112 [10.3%]), and the need to share experiences and seek support (94 [8.6%]). The top 8 challenges identified in posts from patients and caregivers are listed in the table.

Conclusions

This SML study showed that European patients with aBC and their caregivers have a real need for support and to express their challenges, especially regarding disease management. These findings highlight the need for improved patient and caregiver education and for effective systemic cancer treatments and palliative care options for aBC. Table: 2381P

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

This study was sponsored by Merck (CrossRef Funder ID: 10.13039/100009945), as part of an alliance between Merck and Pfizer.

Disclosure

S. Schuck, P. Loussikian, A. Mebarki, J. Malaab, P. Foulquié, M. Talmatkadi: Financial Interests, Personal, Full or part-time Employment: Kap Code. M. Kearney: Financial Interests, Personal, Full or part-time Employment: Merck; Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks or ownership: Merck.