Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2017 Mar 28;8(13):22113-22122.
doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.12770.

Crossing the perspectives of patients, families, and physicians on cancer treatment: A qualitative study

Massimiliano Orri  1   2 , Jordan Sibeoni  1   2 , Guilhem Bousquet  3   4   5   6 , Mathilde Labey  1   2 , Juliette Gueguen  7 , Cyril Laporte  8   9 , Sabine Winterman  6 , Camille Picard  10   11 , Clara Nascimbeni  10   11 , Laurence Verneuil  10   11 , Anne Revah-Levy  1   2
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Crossing the perspectives of patients, families, and physicians on cancer treatment: A qualitative study

Massimiliano Orri et al. Oncotarget. .

Abstract

Purpose: Patients, family members, and physicians participate in cancer care, but their perspectives about what is helpful during cancer treatment have rarely been compared. The aim of this study was to compare these three perspectives.

Methods: Multicenter qualitative study (with previously published protocol) based on 90 semi-structured interviews. Participants (purposively selected until data saturation) came from three different subsamples: (i) patients with cancer (n=30), (ii) their relatives (n=30), and (iii) their referring physicians (n=10, interviewed more than once).

Results: Our analysis found 3 main axes (perceived positive effects of cancer treatment, perceived negative effects of cancer treatment, doctor-physician relationship), each composed of 2 main themes. The findings showed that patients, families, and physicians shared the long-term objective of increasing survival (while reducing side effects). However, patients and relatives also pointed out the importance of living with cancer each day and thus of factors helping them to live as well as possible in daily life. The physicians' difficulty in coping with patients' suffering may limit their access to elements that can improve patients' capacity to live as well as possible.

Conclusions: During cancer treatment (and not only at the end of life), attention should be given to enhancing the capacity of patients to live as well as possible (not only as long as possible) to meet the goals of patient-centered care and satisfy this important need of patients and families.

Keywords: care; crossed perspectives; patient-centered care; qualitative study; quality of life.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to declare.

References

    1. Truog RD. Patients and Doctors — The Evolution of a Relationship. N Engl J Med. 2012;366:581–5. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1110848. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mulley AG, Trimble C, Elwyn G. Stop the silent misdiagnosis: patients’ preferences matter. BMJ. 2012;345:e6572. - PubMed
    1. Sitzia J, Wood N. Patient satisfaction: a review of issues and concepts. Soc Sci Med. 1997;45:1829–43. - PubMed
    1. Sanda MG, Dunn RL, Michalski J, Sandler HM, Northouse L, Hembroff L, Lin X, Greenfield TK, Litwin MS, Saigal CS, Mahadevan A, Klein E, Kibel A, et al. Quality of life and satisfaction with outcome among prostate-cancer survivors. N Engl J Med. 2008;358:1250–61. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa074311. - DOI - PubMed
    1. De Valck C, Bensing J, Bruynooghe R, Batenburg V. Cure-oriented versus care-oriented attitudes in medicine. Patient Educ Couns. 2001;45:119–26. - PubMed

Publication types