2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer (ePosters)-EP02.03-011. Timeliness of Surgery for Early-Stage Lung Cancer: Perspectives from Surgeons and Patients

EP02.03-011. Timeliness of Surgery for Early-Stage Lung Cancer: Perspectives from Surgeons and Patients

Pdf Summary

A study was conducted to determine the perceptions of surgeons and patients on the timeliness of surgery for early-stage lung cancer. The study also aimed to explore the impact of patient characteristics and comorbidities on treatment initiation time (TTI), as well as the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on TTI.<br /><br />The study analyzed data from surgically-resected clinical stage I lung cancers from 2016-2021. TTI measures were collected through the review of electronic medical records. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with a subset of participants to gather their perceptions on timeliness and identify factors that may have led to delays.<br /><br />The results showed that 85.6% of participants considered their TTI to be timely, while 14.4% considered it untimely. All participants who felt their treatment was untimely had a TTI of 59 days or more, which aligns with the physician response that the maximum TTI should not exceed 8 weeks.<br /><br />Factors such as race, educational attainment, vascular disease, asthma, and liver/kidney disease were found to be associated with increased TTI. The study also found that TTI increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.<br /><br />The qualitative research revealed an alignment in views of appropriate TTI between patients with lung cancer and lung cancer surgeons. Further thematic analysis will be reported in a future paper.<br /><br />Overall, the study highlights the importance of timely surgery for early-stage lung cancer and identifies potential disparities and comorbidities that may contribute to delays. The findings also suggest an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on treatment initiation time.

Asset Subtitle

Jeffrey Zhu

Meta Tag

Speaker Jeffrey Zhu

Topic Early Stage Non-small Cell Lung Cancer - Surgery

Keywords

surgeons

patients

timeliness of surgery

early-stage lung cancer

COVID-19 pandemic

treatment initiation time

comorbidities

qualitative interviews

TTI increase

disparities