Clinical Research Directory

Enhancing Cancer Care: Patient Navigation Through EROTC Quality-of-Life Insights at Sohag Oncology Center - A Cross-Sectional Study

This study investigates the use of the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire to assess and address the supportive care needs of cancer patients. It aims to align patient-identified needs with physician-assessed needs to enhance care delivery and referral to supportive clinics such as pain management, physiotherapy, nutrition, and psychotherapy. To improve cancer patients' care, supportive clinics need to be utilised especially for terminal cases. This study investigated the navigation process for patients needing supportive care services based on their responses to the EROTC Quality of Life (QoL) questionnaire, conducted as part of the "Evidence-Based Patient Navigation" initiative. The QoL questionnaire assessed patients across multiple domains relevant to supportive care needs. Approval to use the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire was obtained from the "European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)"5 before study initiation. Our process included both the EROTC-QoL questionnaire (patient-identified needs) and the physicians-assessed needs across four supportive clinics: pain management, physiotherapy, nutrition, and psychotherapy. Clinic navigation was determined by a threshold score (up to a maximum of 4), with patients needing specialized support scoring higher than 2 and those below 2 not needing such services. This initiative (data collection phase) ran from January 1, 2024, to September 31, 2024, and the analysis process was followed afterward. Additionally, we conducted a consistency analysis to measure the alignment between the two assessments.