Head and Neck Cancer
Conditions
Keywords
Financial toxicity
Brief summary
The purpose of this single institution, pilot study is to explore the out of pocket (OOP)costs and financial toxicity of cancer care for patients during definitive treatment of head and neck cancer with radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy and surgical resection. The study team will assess how the financial burden of cancer care impacts quality of life as well as treatment-related decision-making from a patient perspective.
Detailed description
This is a prospective, single institution, survey-based study to assess OOP costs, financial toxicity and pateint reported outcomes (PROs') (including QOL, quality of care, and attitudes/perspectives on the role of cost in treatment decisions). Potential participants are new patient consults in Radiation Oncology Head and Neck Cancer Clinic. Patients with an indication for definitive treatment involving radiation therapy will be approached by study staff and, if amenable, enrolled in the study. After signing informed consent, they will complete a baseline survey assessing socioeconomic household information, baseline symptoms/QOL and baseline costs/financial toxicity. They will be followed prospectively and re-surveyed at 3 and 6 months after completion of radiation therapy. Repeat assessments will document treatment costs and PRO including QOL, financial toxicity, and self-reported quality of care. Patients will be asked to collect all treatment-related bills in a provided binder, which will be reviewed at each survey date. Basic demographic data (including age, sex, race, marital status, zip code, and insurance coverage), comorbidities, smoking status, cancer characteristics (stage, site, histology), treatments received, emergency department visits and hospitalization rates at baseline, end of treatment, 3 months and 6 months after radiation treatment will be collected as part of this study. Disease status and survival will also be assessed from standard of care follow-up visits up to five years after completion of radiation treatment.
Interventions
OTHERDemographics questionnaires and the FACT HN questionnaire
Patients will complete a baseline survey assessing socioeconomic household information, baseline symptoms, QOL, and financial toxicity, as well as attitudes toward cost conversations and educational handouts.
Sponsors
Duke University
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
1. Adult (18 years or older) patients 2. Diagnosed with HNC with treatment plan including definitive radiation therapy or chemotherapy/radiation therapy 3. Be able to read and write in English 4. Able to give informed consent and complete survey materials
Exclusion criteria
1. Recurrent disease 2. Metastatic disease 3. Prior radiation courses must be approved by PI prior to approaching patient for enrollment (prior systemic therapy is not an exclusion to study enrollment).
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Financial toxicity, as measured by out of pocket (OOP) costs for a definitive course of treatment for HNC | 3 months post radiation therapy | — |
| Financial toxicity, as measured by change in Comprehensive Score for financial Toxicity (COST) | Baseline, 3 months post radiation therapy, 6 months post radiation therapy | Financial toxicity will be measured using the comprehensive score for financial toxicity (COST). The range of the COST score is 0-44. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in symptom burden, as measured by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Head and Neck (FACT-H&N) score | Baseline, 3 months post radiation therapy, 6 months post radiation therapy | — |
| Change in quality of life, as measured by FACT-H&N score | Baseline, 3 months post radiation therapy, 6 months post radiation therapy | — |
| Perceived quality of care | 3 months post radiation therapy, 6 months post radiation therapy | Patients will be asked to rate the quality of care as excellent, good, fair, poor, or very poor |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORPooja Karukonda, MD
Duke University Health System (DUHS)
Outcome results
None listed